s Breeirmg, JSearma, airtr fflamgzmtni,

WHETHER IN LABOUR OR REST ;,
WITH

OCCASIONALLY INTERSPERSED,

FOR HIS PRESERVATION FROM DISEASE.

AUTHOR OV "A PHILOSOPHICAL AND PRACTICAL TREATISE ON HORSES,'
" THE HISTORY OF THE HORSE," ETC.

A Horse! a Horse! my money for a good Horse.

Tis the Pace that kills the Horse!�Sporting Mag.
Hie ego qui quondam.

PRINTED FOR, M. ARNOLD, TAVISTOCK STREET,
COVENTGARDEN:

SOLD BY LONGMAN, BEES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN ; V.HITTAKER,

TREACHER, AND ARNOTT ; HURST, CHANCE, AND CO.1

AND OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH.

C. Whittingham, 21, Toots Court, Chancery Lane.

Methinks I hear certain of my readers ex-
claim, "What! ecce iterum Crispinus/�more
on the well-worn subject of the Horse, from
this prosing and argumentative old man !"�
The act is indeed committed: but, for the last
time�new editions to old books excepted. The
size of the present will not be alarming; and
if much novelty cannot be expected on the sub-
ject, yet that subject and all others, of necessity,
vary so much with times and circumstances,
as to authorise further attempts at public uti-
lity. Moreover, somewhat must be conceded
to an old author, on the score of reminding his
patrons the public, of his former labours. The
object of this little book, a galloway or poney
in size, is to form a convenient manual for the
use of the hitherto uninitiated, who may have
neither inclination nor leisure to ride the great
horse in larger volumes ; or whose other indis-
pensable avocations may have precluded them
from the opportunity of obtaining practical in-
formation on a subject, certainly of great and
every day importance in this country.

The difficulty of obtaining good, safe, and
useful horses, for any purpose, always suffici-
ently great, even in this country, has been of

late years infinitely enhanced, the causes of
which will be apparent in these pages; and if
the author cannot guarantee his readers on the
main point, long habits have enabled him to
render the service next in importance, that of
tendering the needful practical cautions. It will
be acknowledged on all hands, that such cau-
tions had never before any thing equal to the
present necessity : and in contemplation of the
old idea, of " perils by land, and perils by water,"
the former appear greatly, at any rate in fre-
quency, to overtop the latter. The author
trusts he has omitted nothing of utility or im-
portance, in those branches of his subject on
which he has undertaken to treat.

It being demanded of an eminent politician
and grammarian of the last century, by the
Commissioners of the Income Tax, " how he
lived I" he replied, " by begging, borrowing,
and stealing !" Should it be demanded of me,
" how I have composed my book ?" my reply
would be, " from my own knowledge, by beg-
ging and borrowing:" the latter occasionally
from my former writings ; and whenever from
those of others, it will be found always accom-
panied with due acknowledgment. I have
freely collected from any source that presented,
whatever I deemed useful.

General Character of the Horse, p. 1. Indigenous breed and
improvements, p. 2. Measures pursued by the government in
the reigns of Henry the Seventh and Eighth to promote and
extend the breeding of horses. The quality of English horses
from that period to the reign of Elizabeth. Foreign breeds
then imported, p. 3, 4. Racing, an early and peculiar English
diversion. The Smoothfield or Smithfield races in London.
The breeding system peculiar to England. The art of farriery
originally derived from the schools of Italy and France. Great
number of writers on farriery and veterinary Science, in the
reign of James the First. Early improvement chiefly confined
to the racer, hunter, and hack. The improvement of our coach,
troop horses, and chargers, commenced about sixty years since.
Anecdote of a late Lord Mayor of London. Present import of
heavy draught horses from the Continent. Military and coach
horses. Scotch and Welsh ponies, p. 4�7.

Divisions and subdivisions of the horse genus into a number of
species and varieties of quality and nomenclature. Designation
of thorough bred, or the Racer. The Yorkshire horse Sampson,
p. 8, 9. Procreation. Age of the horse. Two aged geldings
at Dulwich. Age at which the colt is put to labour. Conven-
tional (general) form of the horse. Of the hack, hunter or racer,
and coach horse. Of the slow draught horse. The old Suffolk
punch. Drawing dead pulls. Gibbing. Yorkshire cross in the
Suffolk punches. Cleveland bays. Present Norfolk cart horse,
p. 10�13. Colours. Age of the horse, its marks. Fraud and
cruelty practised in the case, p. 14�16.

Management in the breeding Stud. Fatal accidents to the horse.
Method of security formerly proposed by the author. Barren
mares. Treatment of the stallion and brood mare. Twin foals.
Detestable cruelties to procure abortion. Term of gestation.
Indications of parturition. Chance medley and regular breeding.
Chief breeding districts. Foresters, p. 17�21.

The countries best adapted to breeding the horse. Convcniencies
necessary in a regular breeding establishment. The royal breed-
ing studs of the ancients�of the moderns in South America.
Breed of the United States North America. The English stud.
Soils proper for breeding the heavy draught horse. The Phra-
seology of the stud, with the late dandy additions. Chief preli-
minaries in breeding. Form of the mare to be considered. In
regular studs corn allowed to the brood mares and foals. Use of
carrots. Markets for brood mares. Particular incidents of the
breeding system. Accidents to the brood mare. Weaning the
foal. Castration. Ancient practice of docking the foal at a
month old, successfully revived by the author, p. 521�27.

The Stallion. Racing stallions formerly used in the stud, whilst in
training. Broodmares. Ancient dangerous practice of turning
the stallion loose among the mares. Modern extreme of an
opposite nature. Treatment of the Stallion. Cleanliness. Case
of an accidental wound. Death of a famous racing stallion
(King Herod) from uncleanness and neglect. Neglect of Eclipse's
feet. External and visible defects in a horse and mare, that may
be propagated, also good or evil qualities. Blindness from Saltram
and Whiskey. Broken winded mares generally barren. Age no
bar in a healthy mare. Welsh mare produced four colt foals
at a birth, all black, p. 28�31.

Colt breaking, of racers at a year old. Barbarous mode in Devon-
shire twenty years since, reported by the author to the late Sir
Lawrence Palk. Colt tackle. Character of the true domitor
equorum, or colt breaker�method. Unsafe to leave colts tied up
by night. Loss of Sir Charles Bunbury's full brother to Smo-
lensko. Method of treating stubborn or restiff colts. Importance
of giving them a good mouth. The paces. First shoeing.
Analogy of temperament and disposition between the horse and
the human animal. The naturally vicious colt. Nature of shy-
ing in the horse, and its proper treatment. Affected shyers.
Three cases of the author. Mode with a careless and blundering
goer. Incorrigible biters, p. 31�36.

SECTION VII. _p. 36.

Castration�the rationale of the practice. Nicking and Crop-
ping�barbarous and useless. Trimming, the modern method.
The mane and tail. The hogged mane. Breaking and training
the slow draught horse�should be taught to back at command.
The plug tails of former days advantageously superseded by the

switch. Break carriage for the coach horse. As to matches with
coach horses. Saddle horseFURNrruRE. Crupper and saddle cloth
nearly obsolete. Martingale. The sash or breastplate introduced
by Sir John Lade. The jackboot stirrup H la Francaise. Bridles,
the ancient snaffle and double reigned curb. Variety of bits, or
instruments of torture. The snaffle-bridle horse. The check
cord. Mild bits most profitable. The curb with a single rein,
severe and unfavourable. General riding, or jockey system of
England, little in accordance with the riding school practice�
use of the latter, p. 36�42.

SECTION VIII. p. 42.

Shoeing. Heavy shoes of former days. Improved about seventy
years since, by Lord Pembroke, Osmer, Bartlet, Snape, and
Clarke of Edinburgh. Our national Veterinary College, the idea
originating with the late Lord Grosvenor. Professor Charles
Vial de Saintbel. His character�of his successors. Notorious
infallibility of every writer's favourite form of shoe. Modern
novelties in shoeing, and the veterinary art, several centuries old.
Ccesar Fiaschi's discoveries and practice. The terrible buttress
should never come near a weak foot, perhaps any foot, the paring
knife being the proper instrument. The toe may be generally-
made most free with. The good and tough hoof. Shoeing the
horse, a necessary evil. Error of the late Mr. White. The foot
of the horse described. The once celebrated shoeing system of
La Fosse. Opening the heels. Exceptions to the general prin-
ciples of shoeing. Internal structure of the foot. Mobility and
elasticity of tendons, in defiance of the early decrees of the Vete-
rinary College. Natural functions of the frog. Summary of the
parts of the internal and sensible foot, p. 45!�52.

Defects of the feet and legs. Wide, flat, and soft hoofs�their oppo-
sites, with contracted or narrow heels and deficient frogs. Too
small feet for the size of the horse, a defect. General defect in
the feet of English road horses, a thin and weak hoof, and tender
crust. Grand defect in a saddle or quick draught horse, the toe
not pointing in a right line, whence ' knocking and cutting,'
either with the toe or heel. Hinder lioofs the strongest. ' Ham-
mer and pincers,' or over-reaching. The running thrush. Corns.
Sandcracks. False quarter. Quittor or javart. The founder.
Grogginess, styled by the Italians sobitaturu, or surbating.
Canker. Loss of hoof. Nerving, no novelty, p. 52�56.

Various defects in the legs, their seat and causes�in the hoofs and
heels. A further enumeration, comprehending those in different

parts of the body. Professor Coleman and Mr. White on the
bursts mucuscc or windgalls. Strains in the back sinews. Break-
ing down. Ligamentary shoulder strains, difficult to be distin-
guished from lameness in the legs or feet. Strained in the loins,
or megrim horses. Lameness in the stifle�of the hip-joint, round
or whirl-bone. Jardons or capped hocks. Stringhalt. Rheu-
matism, p. 57�62. ,

General appearance and condition of the horse, of consequence to
a purchaser. Lean and unthrifty. Hide bound or surfeit. War-
bles or small tumours on the back, indications of high keep and
want of exercise. The dreadful and incurable glanders. Lam-
pascus�the lampas in the mouth. Gigs, bladders or flaps.
Barbs or paps. The cankered or ulcerated mouth. Hurts from
heavy and lacerating bits. Wolves' teeth. The legs. Chronic
lameness from derangement of the internal structure of the foot,
a lost case. The navicular lameness, said to have been discovered
by Messrs. Turners of Croydon and Regent Street. The patten-
shoe. The author's deference to the superior authority of Mr.
Goodwin. The horrible, damnable, and useless conti-
nental OPERATION OF TEARING OUT, OR DRAWING THE SOLE
�now, or ought to be, universally and utterly exploded in
Britain. Shoeing. The common methods. Osmer's seated shoe.
Mr. Goodwin's shoe. This man's shoe, and that man's shoe�
fancy articles, p. 62�68.

Fanciful theories. La Fosse's half-moon shoes. The patent iron
frog. Expansion. Necessity of iron shoes. The legs univer-
sally fail before the feet. The great consequence of this branch
of art, p. 68�72.

SECTION XIII. p. 72.

The bar shoe. Mr. Goodwin's bar shoe. And old experiment with
those shoes. Snape. Grass shoes or tips. Hunting and racing
shoe, or plate. Probable use of Cherry's portable forge for the
running stables. Ancient screw shoe. The moveable toe for
hard wearing horses. Frost shoes. Frost nails in racing plates
for dry and slippery courses. Old sweepstakes over Epsom, by
officers of the Guards. Spectacles for Jockeys in wet seasons
and deep courses, p. 72�77.

Striking and wounding the legs. The common cause. Osmer's
proposed remedy. Moorcroft's experiments. The only resource

a leathern boot. Poultice and water boots. The miserable
practice of compelling a horse to stand upon the bare stones.
Dung or clay stopping for hoofs, hurtful�other measures recom-
mended. Allowing great modern improvement, the old leven,
haste, profit, and bad shoeing, too much the order of the day.
Bad effects of the heavy, wide webbed, convex-surfaced shoes
for draught horses worked on pavements. Opening the heels,
p. 78�82.

Old English shoeing. Quotation from Blunderville, on the art
generally. Ccesar Fiaschi on the narrow heels of Barbs and Jen-
nets�on the form of the nails, and on shoeing the perfect hoof.
On the imperfect hoof. Paring and shoeing for interfering.
Character of the planch, pancelet, or bar-shoe. Enumeration of
the varieties and fancy shoes of that period. The Turkish shoe
nsed in Italy for racers. The present countersunk nail then in
use. Figures in Blunderville, of fifty different bits, and a head
strain, three only of them by him regarded as useful. Quotation
from Goodwin on the character of the present race of operative
shoeing smiths. Farriers' tools in present use from the same.
The drawing knife much improved by Mr. Long, instrument
maker of Holborn. List of the farriers' instruments in the days
of Blunderville and Markham, p. 82�90.

The Stable. Stables of the first class in the country�as they are
in the metropolis. Flooring or pavement. Draining. Aeration.
Mr. Goodwin's experiment with cast iron flooring. Advantage
to a horse to stand loose. The author's plan of converting stalls
into boxes for that purpose. Racks and mangers. Cleanliness,
whitewashing, fumigation. No manger in a loose stall. The
circular, straight, or level rack, lower than usual. Iron prefer-
able. The hay chamber to be abolished in all regular stables.
Receptacles for horse corn. Heated and impure atmosphere of
tlie old running stables. Improvement commenced in the stables
of the late Earl Grosvenor. A moderate warmth of stable tem-
perature, with the periodical admission of fresh and pure air,
constitutionally necessary to the horse. The Rodunda form of
stabling, its various convenience. Due thickness of stable walls.
Dr. Plot, in the History of Oxfordshire, his plan of a eorn chest,
p. 90�100.

SECTION XVII. p. 100.

General stable duties and customs. Protection of weak horses
against the stonger while feeding. Cruel anecdote of a head
carter. Compelling horses to stand in their stalls on the bare

pavement no novelty�recommended by Morgan, who wrote in
the reign of James the First, and successfully ridiculed and
opposed by Michael Baret. The nomenclature of the stable.
The tea-kettle groom. The grand points of feeding and care of
the legs and feet. The turf and hunting stables stand at the
head. Anecdote of a trading groom. Clothing. The roller,
and ' getting up the carcass.' Covering for the loins of coach
and cart horses, abroad upon duty, during bad weather. Exer-
cise for hacks and hunters clothed or not. Clipping or burning
the hirsute horse. Dressing and currying the nag. The teeth
of the currycomb should not be too sharp, p. 100�107.

SECTION XVIII. p. 108.

English stable food for saddle horses. Superior profit of good
heavy oats. Ground corn for cart horses. No general rule as to
quantities. Racks for hay not easily to be dispensed with.
Horses eating their litter. Occasional use of clover, lucerne or
melilot hay. Horses given to drinking. The golden rule in the
case. Soft and hard water. Exercise after water. Bad effects
of stinting ahorse of his due quantity of water. Green food and
roots in their seasons. Autumnal soiling. The carrot and parsnip.
Rutabaga or Swedish turnip, and mangel wurtzel, or beet. Un-
threshed peas or oats. Rowen or cow hay. Diet of slow draught
horses. Barley substituted for oats, as horse corn, in Norfolk.
Bad hay and fodder profitless and injurious, p. 108�114.

SECTION XIX. p. 114.

The Straw yard. Great benefit of a winter's run to a horse injured
by labour. Necessary cautions in the case. Parks to be pre-
ferred. The author's plan for turning horses off, winter or sum-
mer, also for grass and straw stacks, alternate layers. Horse
stealing, ' has increased, is increasing, and ought to be dimin-
ished,'�various recommendations, p. 114�119.

Exercise for saddle and coach horses. The most proper kind for
those engaged in constant labour. Condition, its meaning and
means. Modes of exercise adapted to various occasions. The
improper exercise in Loudon used with crippled post hacks and
coachers. Treatment of a horse by a disciplinarian, p. 119�
123.

SECTION XXI. p. 123.

Purchase. The hackney, resorts for buying and sale. Difficulty
of obtaining a good and sound nag. Inexperienced persons should
not purchase for themselves. Buying of a friend. Cause of the

great number of unquiet horses. Late fatal accident to a well
known dealer. Runaways, biters, and kickers. List of defects
in horses. Commentary on this list. Hereditary and constitu-
tional blindness. Wall eyes. Ceremony of inspection. Fig-
ging�bar ginger for ware horse! Kicking, comparison between
the horse and the cow. Examinations previous to purchase.
Anecdote of an adept at showing a horse. Barbarous stable
discipline of some dealers, and at the repositories, perhaps more
prevalent than ever. The show of the horse out of doors. Ex-
quisite barbarity! The second hand horse. The eyes and ears
of the horse, in different modes, indicate both vice and good
nature. The naturally vicious, however temporarily subdued
never to be depended upon; the naturally kind and tractable,
ever, p. 123�137.

SECTION XXII. p. 137.

The above examinations not to be final. The intuitive subtilty of
the restiff horse. Riding and trying the nag previous to pur-
chase. High qualification of a horse going well down hill.
Defect of the need of martingale or crupper. Shying from
defect of sight in horses, and unavoidably making a false step
on a slippery pavement, how treated by brutal human idiots.
Signs of soundness of the wind to be correctly judged of by the
motion of the flanks. Sound, but thick winded horses. The
customary method of coughing the horse often injurious. Roar-
ing, how discovered. Crib biting. Hacks of high qualifica-
tion. Blasters of high weights described. Fast trotters. The
author's plan, of setting up racing weights in trotting matches,
succeeded after twenty years' solicitation. Robson's Phenomena.
The true trot. The running trotter. Amblers and natural pad-
ders. Speed of trotter for one mile. An hour's performance.
Two hours'. The American trotters. Prices, p. 137�-144.

SECTION XXIII. p. 144.

Ladies' Horses. The true lady's pad described. The canter.
Carriage Horses. Their varieties described. The enormous
destruction of horses, in consequence of our travelling rate
during the last forty years upwards, whence the scarcity and
high price of fresh and sound ones. Grey, in the coacli horse,
the most expensive colour. Dealers. The cheapest marts for
second hand coach horses. As to matching. The attachment
of pairs of horses one to the other. Horses for single harness
The old gig mares. Aldridge, late of St. Martin's Lane.

Ponies for draught. The perpetual recurrence of accidents__

the causes. Country marts for horses. London, the universal

market for all descriptions. Speculations. Repositories__

Beavor, about 1740, the original introductor�succeeded by
Aldridge, father of the present Mr. Aldridge, whose successor is
Mr. Morris. Tattersall's Repository, Hyde Park Corner, opened

about the year 1760. The author's first knowledge of old Mr.
Tattersall in 1773. Character of old Tat. Langhorne's Repo-
sitory, Barbican, now the property of Mr. Dixon. The Horse
Bazaar, King Street, Portman Square. The Repository Gray's
Inn Road, opened in 1828. Sale days at the various London
repositories, with their rules, and the proper method of attending
them. Conditions of sale at the new repository, Gray's Inn Road
�at the Horse Bazaar. Smithfield, the horse market, an epi-
tome of Hell. Where to purchase first rate slow draught horses
�foreign horses, p. 144�155.

SECTION XXIV. p. 155.

Warranty. Good hard swearing in the case. Anecdote of
Judge Mansfield and a Bow Street runner. Present rules of
warranty, and manoeuvres. Blemishes. Judicial decisions,
p. 155�159.

SECTION XXV. p. 159.

Equitation, male and female. The horseman to ascertain, before
mounting, that the furniture be rightly placed. Negligence
even of regular grooms, in this respect. Better your horse be
cruppered than do worse. The old breastplate. Mounting,
how performed. The perfect centaur. The sporting seat on
horseback. The straight-kneed jockey. Foot home in the
stirrup. Spurring. Dismounting. Mounting on the off side.
How a horse should be held for mounting. Altering the length
of the stirrup leathers. Bakcwell's opinion in the case of a
horse stumbling. The start and progress. Jog trot the pace of
health. Seat in the various paces. Rising in the trot, and lift-
ing and working the horse in the gallop, purely English practices.
The trot and cauter. Trotting and cantering hacks, p. 159�166.

SECTION XXVI. p. 167.

The left the right side of the road, in English. Use and abuse of
the curb. Hard and sharp snaffles. The folly and cruelty of
torturing bits. To ensure a good mouth, young horses should
he first put to work with mild bits. The good snaffle-bridle
horse described. The two different intents of a pull. Danger-
ous ways, hills. The martingale a necessary evil. Little success
of the attempt to amend natural defects. When the reins may
be taken separate in each hand. Seat in case of plunging, kick-
ing, or rearing. Correction. The vicious horse. Warranty.
Use of spurs in a critical case. True use of the reins. The
seat. Starting and shying. Great severity ever to be reserved
for vice and roguery. The docile and kind nag�an example
from Sex's livery stables. Duty of masters to teach their ser-
vants mild and fair treatment of animals, p. 167�174.

SECTION XXVII. p. 174.

Quotations from the ' History of the Horse.' Military menage.
Use of the petit, or inferior manage. Barbarous practice of the
old school. ' Adams on Horsemanship'�and Beringer. The
anthor's opinion of riding the ' Great Horse.' Opinion of the
late Charles Hughes of the Circus. Of the author on the genera!
use of riding schools, p. 174�180.

SECTION XXVIII. p. 181.

Female Equitation. Present fashion of the lady's seat on
horseback. When first introduced. Anecdote of two Suffolk
ladies. Male seat most secure for ladies who venture into the
field. Lady Craven. Lady Hester Stanhope. Cantering the
most dangerous pace. Lady Elizabeth Belgrave. To put a
Lady on horseback. Lady scholars to ride on either side the
horse. Ladies' riding shoes. The lady to have sufficient hold
on the bridle in case of accident. Contrary practice of an ex-
cellent horseman. Some ladies very expert in improving the
walk of their pad. The dismount�with the assistance of one
person only to hold the horse. A lofty nag and a strained ankle.
The gentleman's side, attending a lady. The woman's bridle,
double reined, bridoon, and moderate curb. The gallant author
craves pardon of two young ladies, p. 181�186.

SECTION XXIX. p. J 87.

The Road. Various tastes in journey riding. The author of the
impatient class. Great powers of our best English hacks. Al-
ternate trotting and cantering. Distance for a single day or
two�for long journeys. Variety of qualifications in hacks.
Condition for English riding�all in all. Feeding according to
work. The patient horseman carries condition in his pocket.
Feeding and management on the road. Start at a very
moderate pace and finish the last three miles as leisurely.
Every eight or ten miles, a few go-downs of water; and in fast
travelling over hard roads, in hot weather, ride the horse momen-
tarily, over his pasterns, through any water that may be acces-
sible. Danger, be the weather hot or cold, of keeping a horse
in a state of perspiration standing, any length of time, in water.
Up and down hill. Flinty and chalky hills of Surrey and Kent.
Attention due to the known quiet hack, not setting off readilv,
or making a stop on the road. A knowing practice of your
quidding country jockeys. Arrival at the inn. Proper treat-
ment of the horse. As to his appetite. Inspection of the lining
of the saddle and the horse's back. In summer the horse best
dried abroad, but in the shade. The dog-day fever. Smolensko.
Master, or groom to attend every feeding, and prevent stopping
the feet. Convenience in a groom being able to fix a shoe or
drive a nail, p. 187�193.

SECTION XXX. p. 193.

Driving. The author's late letter on the subject to the Sporting
Magazine. Every one for himself and God for us all�the devil
take the hindmost. Associations recommended. The merit of
certain coach proprietors and quality dragsmeu. A legislative
call for the general rate of twelve miles per hour. Coach racing
on the roads. Accidents. Furious driving through the crowded
streets of the metropolis. The author's hair-breadth escape.
His funereal paragraph on speculation. Rapid whirl round cor-
ners of our swell gig-drivers. Eight to ten miles per hour suffi-
cient speed for our stage coaches. Horses changed and har-
nessed, light or dark, in a certain number of seconds! Mortality
among coach horses in the hot season. As to turning off worked
coachers for improvement. Driving in single harness. The old
' Whip, or Four in Hand Club.' Six in hand. Bob Allen.
Tommy Onslow, his eloge. The driver of a buggy (solus) yet
ever to be found on his own side, and why. Trotting the
pace for a single or pair of horses, p. 193�205.

SECTION XXXI. p. 205.

Driving continued. The author's lowly pretensions. The high-
est and best existing authority�Nimrod, of the Sporting
Magazine. Selections from thence. Never turn a loaded coach
short, even at a slow pace. As to the trot and canter in harness.
Various qualities in coach horses, p. 205�210.

SECTION XXXII. p. 210.

Management of high blowers. Use of the bearing rein. Tem-
per in horses to be regarded. A horse fancying his place should
have it. Affectionate partners should not be parted. Tender
and hard mouthed horses, expedients to hold the latter. Re-
marks on these by the author, with a remedy. Kickers. The
hip-strap. Speaking to coach horses, long since out of print,
but useful. Anecdote of a mail coachman, who ought to have
been taught common sense under the most effective discipline at
the halbei t. Night work. Lamp light treacherous. Golden
Rules of Nimrod for a night coachman. Anecdote of two
horses which have stood the coach work more than ten years.
Abram Straglcr, of the old Colchester, successor of Abram Met-
calf, who commenced driving about the year 1740. Good flesh
upon a coach horse the thing. Periodical purges beneficial to
all kinds of horses, kept at hard meat. Rate of work in fast and
slow coaches. Broken legs. The megrim and the lick. Legs
and loins broken in the late insane attempts at increase of speed.
Megrim, or swooning in the collar. The lick. Nimrod's excel-
lent correspondent Mr. Buxton. Various useful rules, p. 210
�219.

SECTION XXXIII. p. 219.

" Je-whoo it," and " Ya-op," defunct. Politeness of onr present
gentlemen of the road. Mr. Buxton's counsel, that horses should
have some notice, a click or a whistle. Hallooing! to a kicker.
Whipping on the ears, its use and its danger. The author's
agreement with Nimrod as to coach horses, and the preference due
to trotting in harness; and on the danger of putting a young
horse, untrained (the common practice), into a coach laden with
passengers. Wages of coachmen. Mr. Mason. The coachman's fee.
A coachman ought not to drive more than seventy miles a day,
and that at two starts. An old Norwich coachman living in
Whitechapel. A young postilion killed by excess of service
in the old Ipswich. Road Slang�of the pugilistic ring,
and of the respectable profession of the abstractors. The
slang or flash of other classes, p. 219�223.

SECTION XXXIV. p. 224.

The Field. The fox, hare, and deer, chief beasts of venery
in this Country. Nature of the chace. Fox hunting the most
popular. The general instinctive hunting principle a source of
great barbarity. Erroneous speculation on the probable decline
of field sports and of the turf. The vile passion for baiting
animals. Deer hunting contemptuously styled calf hunting.
The opinion of an old foxhunter. The author's opinion. Com-
parison in respect to income required for keeping a pack of
hounds, between former and present days. Subscription packs.
Leicestershire the national head quarters of the fox hunt.
Necessity of change in all things, the due and probable result,
improvement. Ancient and modern morning hour for reaching
covert. The old English hunter. Foreign and thorough bred
horses always in use as hunters, in this country. General change
to the more speedy, in both horses and hounds, commenced up-
wards of three score years since. The old Southern hound.
Early objections to this revolution. The origin and breed of
^mi>st of our sporting dogs attempted to be traced in the ' Sports-
Man's Repository.' Colonel Thornton and Hugo Meynell. Old
�^xUonnd match over the B. C. Newmarket. Colonel Thornton's
**I^erkin. Cross of the greyhound and pointer on the old southern
hound. The modern hunter should be, at least, three parts
bred _; _seven _eigi_iuis preferable to full blood. Qualifications of
j. ^C0Inplete English hunter. Reference to Messrs. Tattersall.
importance of being carried pleasantly in the field. Some horses
enthusiastically attached to the sport. Anecdotes, p. 224�237.

SECTION XXXV. p. 237.

ru!^-1f^G ^T>° ^H°^UNDS- Few instructions on paper necessary. Sam
Chitney s seat. Qneer position of the toes thrust through the
stirrups and pointing downwards. Sitting a horse in the jump.

To make the horse a steady, prompt, and safe fencer. Hold
hard!�when the jump probable to reach the other world. The
lold wild goose chase and modem steeple hunt. More
mettle than wit, and q. s. of cruelty in these heroic feats. Did
Nimrod ever ride to a steeple? Welch creeping, p. 237�249.

SECTION XXXVI. p. 249.

Slang of the Field. Cockney introductions. Examples of various
attempts at an overstrained refinement of language. Dr.Ciirshain
and his female dog. The Sporting Magazine the text book for
slang. History of that popular periodical, at first not received
by the Sporting world�with most difficulty by the field. Advent
and success of the celebrated Nimrod. Controversy on sum-
mering the hunter. Early examples of this controversy. The
summer stabling practice first introduced by continental mare-
chales and grooms. Quotation from Michaell Baret�from Beck-
ford�from a former book of the author. Reference to the Lords
Derby and Petre�Mr. Farquharson and Mr. Maberly. A famous
run of Mr. Farquharson's hounds. True spring and summer ma-
nagement of the hunter. The rationale as to hard meat. General
and most prevalent opinion on summering. Accidents at grass,
how avoided. Home, or near pasture, a great convenience.
Letter from the proprietor of a celebrated pack of fox hounds,
p. 241�251.

SECTION XXXVII. p. 251.

Training the hunter. As to sweating. Feeding to be regulated
by appetite and digestion. The muzzle, its supposed use in the
old school�shoes of advantage. Quotation from Nimrod. Dan-
ger of making too free with good flesh, and of feeding beyond
the digestive powers of the horse. Strong work and sweating
the day before the hunt, a rash and needless anticipation of
labour. An unsound hunter a dangerous shift. No parallel to
be drawn between the continent, or India, and this country,
with respect to summering the hunter. As to the grass proper
for hunters. Artificial grasses. Use of carrots in early spring.
General stable routine. The hunter not to be denied water, on
going out, nor to be too empty. Ill effects of the old discipline of
lengthened starvation. Treatment of the hunter after a hard
day's work, p. 251�256.

SECTION XXXVIII. p. 256.

From steeple hunting to riding horses to death in the field. A
hero to the nackers. Risk of neck-breaking by way of a lark.
Danger of broken ground. Material difference in the case be-
tween a horse failing in the field through his own and his rider's
enthusiasm, and his being driven to death by the force of whip
and spur. The latter a strange spectacle to be coupled with

sportive ideas. Melton Mowbray the head quarters of fox
hunting. Wonderful spring of Lord Alvanley's hunter, Chester-
field. Apologetical address of the author to his sporting readers.
Baret quoted on the wild goose chase, p. 256�260.

SECTION XXXIX. p. 261.

Sport of the Turf, its high antiquity. Chiefly directed, in ancient
times, to warlike purposes. Both chariot and horse races. An-
cient crossing and jostling. Heats four miles, the course pur-
posely rendered irregular with obstructions interspersed, one of
which was a frightful scarecrow god. The magnificent racing
system of the Eastern Emperors, and their noble principle of
compassion towards animals. The author's visit to Shaftoe's
Squirrel. Racing in England traceable to the eleventh century.
Prices of racers in the fourteenth. Origin of the present system
in the reign of James the First, or between that and of Charles
the Second. The thorough bred racer. Error of the late Dr.
Parry and others. Breeds of the Levant. The Arab and Barb
of the Desert, the original courser. Early prejudice against the
Arabians, a curious fact not being well known. Dismal of intire
foreign blood. Arabian plate at Newmarket. Inferiority of the
new blood. Uncertainty in the whole racing system. Foreign
stallions of late years, in utter neglect on the turf. A new
attempt with three Arabians, p. 261�267.

Maximum of the racer's speed. Firetail and Pumpkin. Matchem
timed over the Beacon Course. Childers over the Round Course.
Immense increase of the business of the Turf. Examples. The
race horse the most useful of the species. Vernon's Amelia, her
match at carrying weight with the miller's horse. Bullock's
cantering hack. Great size of some of our racers. Query as to
otir having of late receded some points, in respect to form and
goodness, below the former standard. Present racers too lofty
and too leggy. Observator, his annual remarks. Sir Charles
Bunbtirv's opinion. Dr. Syntax, and Old Damper. Stallions
covering whilst in training�Hobgoblin, Babram, Dorimant.
A revival ot that custom recommended. False starts. A remedy.
Race course police. Exemplary at Epsom and Ascot. His
R. H. the Duke of Sussex. Posts on race courses. Death of
' Little Wicked,' a favourite lad of Lord Ossory. Great colt
stakes, 1777, won by the jockey's head piece. Racing mania
upon the Continent. Fiance yet in the back ground. The
Doncaster St. Ledger. New stand at Epsom. Exertions of
Mr. Maberlv. Short races most prevalent. Racing of Cock-
tails and Hunters. Lord March's Rocket gelding, jockied of
old by Dick Goodison. 'Slow good ones,' goodseconds and

thirds�advice thereon. Quarter and half mile races at New-
market�yearling and two year old courses, in times long past,
p. 267�275.

SECTION XLI. p. 275.

Butchering and cutting up race horses alive !�the dear delight of
all parties, a mere customary and delectable gratification, of no
or very questionable use. Difficulty of reform principally with
the jockies. Execrable murder of the flea-bitten grey gelding�
very amusing to a dinner company. Hull's Hussar cut up alive
at Epsom. Hull's directions to his jockey Bill Barnes. Old
Frampton. Address to our high sporting aristocracy. Sir
Charles Bunbury's plan successful. Appeal to the jockies,
Buckle, Goodisson, Robinson, Chifney. Old Sam. Chifney not
a hard hearted man, p. 275�279.

SECTION XLII. p. 279.

Pedigree. The Helmsley Turk. The implicit faith of a writer
in the Sporting Magazine. The author's acknowledgment of a
former error. Bay Bolton. Partner. Jigg. Bloody But-
tocks. Sampson. The Highflyer�portrait of the Darley
Arabian. Universal opinion of Sampson's defect in pedigree.
The old groom's report on Sampson's dam. Carter's Driver
not thorough bred. A lengthy rigmarole on the disputed pedi-
gree of Eclipse. His character. Always his own jockey.
Description. Named from the total eclipse in 1764. Prognosis
of Bernard Smith. Eclipse purchased by Wildman. The double
covernot disputed till Wildman became the proprietor of Marske.
The oath. Sale of Marske. No resemblance in Eclipse or his
stock to the Marskes. Marske described. Spilletta, dam of
Eclipse. Tyndal, formerly in O'Kelly's stables. Family resem-
blance of Eclipse to Shakespeare and his stock. As to pedigree
and performance, between Shakespeare and Marske, the palm
probably to be conceded to the former. The question of no
consequence, and the speculation windy. A queer illustration.
Matthews, Adolphus, Nimrod and Co. p. 279�290.

SECTION XLII. p. 290.

Great advantage to Eclipse, from not starting until five years old.
An occasional recourse to that plan recommended. Importance
of weight to a racer. The old opinion. Dead weight. Specu-
lation on racing weights. Handy capping. Crossing and jostling,
Pyrrhus and Mambrino. Abolished by the Jockey Club. Rule in
the case. Fairness and consideration of the present racing
system, with one exception. Comparison between the racers of
past and present times, brought to a point. Shark perhaps the

most productive racer. Shark Piggot. Newmarket never before
so well attended. ' Things run taper' there no longer. Epsom.
Ascot. Accident at the latter. Nominations for the chief courses
numerous beyond all precedent. Morality of the turf. Apparent
necessity for manoeuvre and stratagem. Needful bounds in the
case. Trying horses. Several killed in trials. A few words on
commencing a turf engagement. Profession of betting. The late
Mr. Cline on Horse Breeding. The author's warm recommenda-
tion of Mr. Darvill's book. Ancient training. Markham's
Cavalarice. Late prices of racers. Zinganee our reputed best
horse. St. Alban's races. The author's petition to the noble
Buke. No account of the famous racer Brilliant in the Turf
Register. Curious race over the course at two year old weights
between Herod and Ascham, aged horses. Late dead heat with
three horses. Turf reference books. Abbreviations, number
and indications of the courses at Newmarket. Charles the
Second's chair removed from the hill at Newmarket, p. 290�300.

SECTION XLIII. p. 301.

The animal question. Kights of beasts. Lord Erskine's bill beat
over the course by the light weight of ridicule. Its subsequent
effect out of doors. Various antiquated barbarisms and fooleries
discontinued. Martin, of Galway, his success in parliament. His
bill acknowledges the jus animalium as a branch of the social con-
tract. Unavoidably imperfect from the existence yet of a strong
prejudice. Nothing wanted but a legal prohibition of staking
animals to the torture under the idea of sport, i. e. baiting. The
Church of England Clergy, their superior exertions in this cause.
The Rev. A. Broome, founder of the present Society for Animal
Protection. Abstraction and line-drawing in parliament. The
late Mr. Canning's opinion. Justice, simple and indivisible,
alike due to man and beast. The unnatural delight of witnessing
the affrights and sufferings of animals. Pits and bull rings,
disgraceful statute in favour of the latter. Parliamentary logic.
Attachment to ancient barbarisms, by no means confined to the
lowest class. No considerable party in England disposed to
interfere with rational and fair sports. Late bullbait at Smith-
wick. Horrible tortures inflicted on tame and gentle bulls. A
recommendation to the crack of our bull baiters. Petition to
Parliament lately presented by Earl Grosvenor. Decision of
the judges. A legal profundity. Discrepancy of legal opinion.
Necessity of Societies for animal protection in large towns,
p. 301__3l0.

APPENDIX, p. 311.
⁸Sn °^f _t^WaSers. Extract from the Transactions of the Animal
hors l~^Smithfield" ^pitninS ^cattle- S°ck and leathern sole

Page 66, line 7�to middle, add age.

------ 68, line 14�for predicted, read predicated.

------114, add Section XIX.

------188, line 6�for alteration,�alternation.

------285, near bottom, Eclipse foaled 1764.

O f all quadrupeds subdued and domesticated by the
hand of man, the horse stands preeminent, as the
most intelligent and generous, and of the most vari-
ous and indispensable use. He is susceptible of
any lesson inculcating the duties required of him;
he is sensible of kind and fair treatment, and will
make a grateful return; he is sociable and playful.
The horse, the speediest of all domesticated animals,
perhaps of all animals, imparts that speed to us,
by bearing us upon his back in his full career, and
giving us a celerity and extent of locomotion to which
^we could not possibly attain independent of his aid.
Harnessed to the carriage, we experience from him
^s,milar services, in which he ministers, in the highest
degree, to our ease and comfort. He is our great and
indispensable ally in war. His share in the culture
°f the earth, that first of all human concerns, the
Provision of sustenance for man and beast, is of vital
importance; and his services in all human transactions
branch into an innumerable variety. He both pro-

motes our highest degree of luxury, and painfully
toils through the lowest and severest drudgery. In
fine, after a life of ceaseless and laborious exertion,
his carcass is sold for the support of other animals,
and his hide is in constant request for various im-
portant branches of manufacture. Surely this noble
quadruped, in the first place, on the score of his
being endowed by nature with feelings similar to our
own, and in the next, from a regard to his manifold
and indispensable services, richly merits that j ustice,
consideration, and compassion from man, which it
is most lamentable and disgraceful he does not ex-
perience.

Indigenous Breed and Improvements of this Country.

Little is known of the indigenous breed of horses in
these islands, but that they were comparatively small
in size, and so to express it, of a wild and unaltered
form; yet, on the Invasion by the Romans, Caesar
found the British horses regularly harnessed to the
war-chariots. It is, however, certain that we began to
import at a very early period; and that our improve-
ment, not only of the horse, but of all other domestic
animals, now beyond possible competition, superior to
that of all other countries, has resulted, in the first
instance, from constant periodical importations. Thus
the best breeding stock of every kind has been selected
from all, even the most distant regions ; and the result
has been, that the selections here introduced and deni-
zened have invariably, in consequence of our skill,
industry, the feeding and incrassating nature of our
gramineous soil, and the mildness of our climate, far

exceeded the originals introduced, in size, form, and
every valuable property. The domestication and care
of animals have immemorially, been a prime and fa-
vourite object of pursuit with the people of this
country; and improvement had made, particularly in
size, considerable progress, as early as the reigns of
our Saxon and Norman Kings. Some export of
English bred, as well as a constant import of foreign
horses, had then taken place. The fine silken-haired
and delicate courser of the South East, and the jennet
of Spain were subsequently introduced; the war-horse
from Germany, the heavy draught-horse from Bel-
gium and the Low Countries:�such is the foundation
on which the supereminent and incomparable breed
of English horses has been reared.

In the reigns of Henry the Seventh and Eighth, and
on the cessation of the long continued distractions
resulting from the contest between the two Roses,
government showed a particular anxiety to promote
and extend the breeding of horses; but by arbitrary
regulations and restrictions, not well calculated to
answer the ends proposed. The ancient prohibition
to export horses, particularly stallions, was continued;
which, the writer has been informed, remains yet
upon our statute book; although, from its antiquity
and impolicy, it has long since remained a dead letter.
In the reigns of Elizabeth and James, a considerable
number of writers appeared on the subject of the
worse and of farriery, then styled fernery, derived,
ui probability, from the Latin, ferrum iron, of which
the horse-shoe is made. These writers evince that,
however rude the art in their days, it had been

practised with general attention and perseverance
in times long antecedent. Blundeville, the earliest
now known, and one of the ablest of them, describes
the generality of English horses in the reign of Eli-
zabeth, as either weak or sturdy jades, adapted only
to draught; with however some, indeed very credit-
able exceptions. As an example, he states the fact
of a horse having travelled for a wager, four score
miles within the day. The ambition of improvement
had then become so universally diffused, that even
the carters were very nice in their choice of horses.
The great breeders of the country, according to Blun-
deville, had long been accustomed to import the
following races for the stud : " The Turk, the Barba-
rian, the Sardinian, the Neapolitan, the Jennet of
Spain, the Hungarian, the high Almaine (German),
the Friezeland, the Flanders, and the Irish Hobby."
Nevertheless, in those days, horses could not have
been very numerous in England, since the queen
experienced the utmost difficulty in mounting two
or three thousand cavalry.

Throughout these early periods, as in modern times,
riding on horseback, and trying the speed of their
horses, was peculiarly an English diversion. The
country sports of hunting and hawking are of a very
ancient date; and our old chronicles furnish us with
accounts of the constant diversions in Smoothfield
(Smithfield), then an extensive plain, where the citi-
zens of London matched and raced their horses, the
superior orders joining with the citizens in these
sporting competitions. The peculiar English system
of breeding the horse, essentially and usefully difTe-

rent from that of any other country in Europe, had
an early commencement; but, as might well be ex-
pected, was confined to the superior, chiefly to the _.-
sporting classes. This system has been gradually
and progressively improved to the late times; during
which we have produced specimens in every variety
of the animal, bordering on attainable perfection :
such however, it must be acknowledged, have been,
even in our latest and most vaunted periods, vara
fives, sufficiently scarce; and our numbers of scientific
and judicious breeders have at noj^eriod formed the
nrajority. The average, however, of English horses,
has possessed a fair proportion of the English princi-
ple. Hence, their constant demand for foreign studs.

This national principle of horse-breeding, consists
MB matching the horse and mare, in respect to size,
substance, blood, and a certain conventional symmetry,
so as to obtain a form in the foal, in which may subsist
a union of strength and ability for labour, with the
powers of activity, and speedy progression. We pro-
ceed on the principle that, generally, and subject to
the natural and unavoidable dilemma of exception,
'like produces like.' So said, and so found, that
renowned cattle breeder Bajcewell, who modernized
the ancient adage, " most commonlie, such sire and _^
damme, such colt."

As we imported foreign horses, invariably improv-
^lng upon those models, so we originally imported
the art of farriery and veterinary science from the
schools of Italy and France, improving upon those
likewise. In the early periods above quoted, the
farriers of note and the riding-masters in England,

were generally Italian or French. Those, indeed,
were sufficiently barbarous and unenlightened; our
native artists inconceivably so, when the length of
time is considered through which their art had been
in universal practice in all its branches. The number
of old farrying and veterinary writers was great; in-
deed, certain of them of eminent classical attainments,
though the names even, of few have reached our days.
Dr. Johnson has somewhere remarked on the vast
number of writers of that class, who published in the
reign of James the First. The subsequent course
of improvement seems to have been confined to the
saddle-horse, to the racer, hunter, and hack; at least,
with respect to symmetry and activity, with some ex-
ception in favour of the cart-horse. The improvement
of our coach, troop-horses, and chargers, was in idea,
and in its actual commencement about sixty years
since, when the generality of them were of a gross,
heavy, and inactive breed. And the present writer
well remembers Sir Robert Rich's heavy plug-tailed
dragoon horses, with his formidable black drummers;
and also the stage-coach horses of similar descrip-
tion, a set of which travelled gallantly, with a jee-
who-it! and a crack of the whip, full fifty miles
between six a. m., and eight p. m. But he suspects
the present Lord Mayor of London (Venables, 1828)
in one of his merry stories at the Mansion House,
must have made a chronological mistake in the ac-
count of his travel from Maidstone, at the above slow
rate, so lately as 1780, with the facetious additions
of taking leave of friends at the set out. Those
laughable incidents belong to a much earlier period;

for, if the present writer, in the attempt to detect
an error, does not himself stumble into one, he, in
1773, travelled from Colchester to London, between
the hours of eight and four, on the box of the four
o'clock coach then lately set up, drawn by four
hunting-like horses, in the highest condition, and
ready to jump out of their harness. Now, it is not
very probable, that Maidstone, still nearer to the
metropolis, should be so far behind Colchester in
their travelling- rate.

The attempt to grow bread corn enough to suffice
our vastly increased and increasing population, has
Ions since caused the discontinuance of various former
articles of culture, for which we consequently have
become an importing country. Among other imports,
that of heavy draught horses from Belgium and from
various parts of the continent, has increased greatly
of late years; not as formerly, for the almost only
purpose of breeding stock, but for immediate labour.
Our military horses, with the exception of a few
chargers, are probably, most of them, bred in this
country, from continental stallions. A few coach
horses are_jmp_orted_for harness; scarcely ever any
number of hacks for use, worthy of mention. Ponies,
that is to say, those which are small enough to
challenge a real title to that name, are obtained in
the Scottish Highlands and the Isles; for the breed
°f those dwarfs of the genus in Wales, with some ^~
exceptions, has long since been reduced within very
narrow limits on a comparison with former times.

The equine or Horse genus in this country, is
divided and subdivided into a number of species
and varieties of quality and nomenclature. For ex-
ample, the racer or running horse, the cock-
tail RACER, the HUNTER, HACK, HACKNEY ROAD-
HORSE or chapman's horse, the cob, the lady's
horse or pad, the coach and chariot horse,
gig-horse, charger and troop horse, the slow
draught or cart and drayhorse. In sporting
language, the term horse indicates one uncut, or
a stallion. Gelding has ever been a common and
familiar term. A horse below thirteen hands (four
inches to a hand) in height, is styled a poney;
above that height, and below fourteen hands, a gal-
loway. Fashion, however, rules the roast in all
things, and of late it has become the ton to nick-
name galloways, and almost sized horses, ponies,
quasi pets ; and I have lately heard Tattersall himself
announce from the pulpit, a poney for sale, which
bordered very nearly on fourteen hands. The word
or term has also been, of late years, curtailed, as
I humbly conceive, of its fair orthographical pro-
portion. It is now spelled pony, a literal abridg-
ment introduced, in all probability, according to my
observation, by that celebrated journal the Times,
by way of the laudable economy of a single letter
in an advertisement. The term entire horse, for horse
or stallion, may perhaps be about ten or seven years
of age. It has not hitherto had much currency,
being deemed a cockneyism by the generality of

sportsmen and horsemen. The cob, a denomination
perhaps of twenty years standing, refers to a truss,
short-legged nag, able to carry weight. The pack-
horse has long .since disappeared from among us,
Perhaps entirely, by virtue of the great modern im-
provements in roads and carriages. The cocktail,
^a new term in the slang of the inferior turf, indicates
^a racer not thorough bred. The welter horse,
^a term of long standing, but of unknown derivation,
Points to either racer or hunter, master of the highest
weight. The designation thorough bred belongs
to the racer of pure Arabian or Barb blood; and --'"
the term is likewise applicable to the horses of other _jnations of the South East, as will be hereafter eluci-
dated. A nag, in which the show of blood predomi-
nates, is styled blood-like, or a blood-horse. The degrees
of blood in an English horse are thus expressed, half
bred, three parts, and seven eighths bred, which last
term probably, I supplied. The first, or half bred,
being the produce of a racer and a common mare,
^or vice versa, (the last cross not so frequent, nor
deemed so successful); the second of the racer and
half bred, and the third of the racer and the three
part bred mare. This last may, and has raced capi-

as in the case of the Yorkshire black horse, Old _,.

Sampson, which about four score years since beat ali
England. Several other similar examples of success-
ful seven eighths bred racers, have occurred at various
Periods. Perhaps no instance has ever occurred, of
^a three part bred horse saving his distance in running -�
two miles with thorough bred racers.

The horse and mare, in course of nature, are

capable of procreation at a very early age, but not
with the prospect of their best produce. The rule
in this case necessarily depends on the convenience
of the breeder; the procreative faculty, with both
horse and mare, remains to a very late period of their
lives, more especially with the horse, some individuals
having been successful stock getters at upwards of
thirty years of age. Four years is generally the
earliest period, whether for horse or mare. Indeed,
unless from particular circumstances, the mare is
seldom put to the horse, until she has passed some
years of labour, or has become accidentally inca-
pable of it. It is probable that the excessive labour
which they endure in this country, styled by foreign-

-""* ers 'the hell of horses,' has curtailed their length
of days; and that under more favourable circum-
stances, both their age and their services might be
greatly prolonged. The writer, some years since,
saw at Dulwich two geldings, the one forty-eight,
the other fifty-four years of age, both of them capable
of performing some light daily labour, the property
of his friend, the late Edward Brown, Esq., who had
both their portraits. Racing and cart colts are put
to light labour at three, and even two years old ;
but saddle and quick draught horses are incapable,
that is to say with safety, of the usual labour, until
five years of age. From the excessive and cruel
system of labour adopted, against all feeling and con-
science, in this country, horses are torn to pieces
before their tenth year; and if they miss the benefit

»*- of slaughter, they seldom survive their twentieth.

The conventional form of the horse, as to the
great essentials, may be held referable to every va-

riety; for example, the head should be lean, argutum
caput, neither long nor short, and set on with some-
what of a curve; the thropple loose and open; the
neck not reversed (cock-throppled), but rather arched;
the loins wide and substantial, more especially should
the back be long; the tail not drooping, but nearly
°n a level with the spine; the hinder quarters well
spread, as a support to the loins, and as a security
against the approach to each other of the pasterns
in progression, whence results cutting them with the
hoofs; the hinder legs should descend straight, late-
rally from the hocks, as a preventive to the defect
styled sickle-houghed or hammed; at the same time,
the curve from the hock should be to the degree, that
the feet may be placed sufficiently forward to prop
the loins, and that the horse may not be said to leave
his legs behind him; the muscles of the thigh and
fore arm should be solid and full, though some
horses are heavy and overdone by nature in thost
parts. The horse, of whatever description, should
not be leggy, and of the extremes, short legs are
surely preferable. The canon or leg-bone, below the
knee, should not be long, but of good substance,
and the pasterns and feet of a size to accord with
the size of the horse; the hoof dark, feet and frog
tough, heel wide and open; the fore feet should stand
perfectly level, the toe pointing forward in a right
line, else the horse will knock or ' cut in the speed,'
however wide his chest; in plain terms, he will either
�strike and wound his pasterns, or his legs imme-
diately below the knees, or both; the feet standing-
even, the horse being equal to his work, will seldom,

perhaps never, knock or cut, however near the hoof
may approach. A full, clear, azure eye. ��

Such are the requisites of form, whether for the
racer or cart horse. For the hack, hunter, or
racer, there are certain other requisites of form
and quality; the chief of which to be quoted are the
deep, backward-declining, and as it is called, the
counter or coulter shoulder, well elevated forehand,
deep girthing place, with sufficient racing blood to
give lightness, action, and fineness of hair and skin.
This description applies with perfect aptitude to the
hunter, which should have moreover great strength
of loin and fillet, and should not be high upon the
leg. Nor is any addition necessary for the running-
horse, but greater general length, which is the usual
result of full or thorough blood. As to our coach
_hqrses, such is the modern rageforspeed, that our
mails and stages may well be said to consist, in a consi-
derable degree, of racers and hunters; and our private
coaches of hunting-like horses ^orJ_2j2�ge scale.

In regard to the natural and peculiar form of the
slow draught horse, he carries his substance in a
round, full, and horizontal mode; his chest is wide
and full; his shoulder rather round and bluff than
deep, and its summit, the apex or top of the fore-
hand, not high and acute, but wide. Such form
seems best adapted to the collar, and to enable the
animal to draw, propel, or move forward, heavy
weights; we nevertheless, daily see numbers of first-
rate draught horses with deep flat shoulders. It
used to be held, that a low shoulder facilitated
draught; and such was the form of the old Suffolk

d�iZ��.�Hi~^norses>the truest and most forceful pullers
ever yet known; they were the only breed, collec-
tively, that would draw dead pulls, that is to say,
would continue repeated pulls, going; down upon their

JH^Si^at an immovable object; for example, a tree.
* "is, draught horses in general, even the most power-
ful and the best, as the writer has witnessed, cannot
^De brought to do, with whatever severity; at the
second or third pull, gibbing, as it is called, and
^rnng their heads, as if to point with their eyes,

.lp_vvards their failing loins. Such was the rage in
former days, among the Suffolk farmers' men, for
wagering on this sport of dead pulls, that many valu-
able teams of horses were annually strained and
ruined thereby. This, in all probability, was the
cjrief cause, that so extremely active and valuable
a .breed was relinquished. Sixty years since consi-
derable progress was making in Suffolk, to cross
"leir breed with large Yorkshire horses, still adher-
^lng to the chestnut colour; and between the last
twenty and thirty years, only several solitary indi-
^Vlduals of the old breed remained. The new Suffolks
have proved a long, heavy, leggy, dull looking breed,
yet useful; more resembling in form and size pro-
bably the Cleveland bays than any other. The pre-
sent Norfolk breed of cart horses bears resemblance
m size and activity to the old Suffolk ; but the former
are not celebrated for drawing dead pulls. It used
to be matter of question with the knowing ones
whether drawing with those extraordinary and vain
^repetitions, were a natural qualification, consequent
°n the peculiar form of the Suffolk horse, or whether
't were the mere result of training to that habit ?

To speak of the colours of these animals to the
uninitiated, who are ambitious of describing things
by their proper technical stable names, here followeth
the horseman's and sportsman's phraseology in the
case, in which by the by, mirabile dictu, we have
yet no novelty or addition. The colours of horses are
thus expressed�black, white ; grey, dappled

GREY, IRON GREY, FLEA-BITTEN GREY; red, nut-
meg, and blue roan ; strawberry ; bald, face
whited; pyebald (spotted); dun; chestnut, light
and dark; brown, light and dark; bay, light bright,
or yellow. Sorrel is an obsolete Suffolk term for
deep chestnut.

The age of the horse is discoverable on a general
view, by the freshness or deadness of his hair, and
its intermixture with grey, and by the hollowness
and sinking in the orbits of his eyes: with precision,
by the marks in his mouth, which continue to rising,
namely, coming eight years of age; beyond which
period nothing relative can be determined, but on
conjecture. The length of his teeth, their edges
standing more outward, by which aged horses are
apt to bite and wound their lips in mastication; or
if short, their foulness and dingy colour, are signs
of old age in apparent degrees. Nature has allowed
the horse forty teeth, twenty-four grinders, or double
teeth, twelve fore teeth, and four tushes, which last
standing in the corners of the mouth, are peculiar
to the horse, being seldom found with the mare; or
if found, scarcely to be distinguished by the finger.
The front teeth or gatherers are flat and smooth ;
the back jaw teeth or giinders, twelve above, and
twelve below, are strong, double, and with sharp

edges, until smoothed by old age and use. The
tushes are detached from the back teeth; the first,
^or foal's teeth, are tangible in a few months, twelve
^ln number, above and below; they are remarkably
white and small, not unlike the human fore teeth;
and when mixed in the colt's mouth with those which
succeed, size renders them plainly distinguishable.
In some, the foal's teeth remain several months after
the appearance of the adult or horse's teeth. Gene-
rally the four middlemost foal's teeth, two above and
two below, are cast at between two and three years
°f age, and their successors being complete, the colt
°r filly is deemed three years of age. At three years
and a half, four additional foal teeth are cast on each
side the nippers, gatherers, or middle teeth. The
two middle teeth, above and below, full grown, indi-
cate the age of four years ; the tushes appearing
nearly at the same time, occasionally rather earlier
°i' later, they are then small, curved, and their summits
encircled by a sharp edge, which becomes blunted
in age; the inside of the tusk is somewhat grooved,
hollow, and rather flat. The horsedealing fraud of
extracting the foal's teeth, in order to cause a pre-
mature appearance of the adult, and to pass the horse
^tor a four year old, may be detected by the absence
^ot the tushes, which should appear at that period.

^n the approach to, and at the age of five years,
^when the horse has nearly attained the prime of life,
his corner teeth begin to appear; at first, level with
the g_Ums _and _fili_e(j _wj_tn fl_esn _m their centre; the
ushes also, increased in size, though not yet large,
^are somewhat rough and sharp. The corner teeth

are remarkable, as more fleshy within than the mid-
dle, or front teeth, which reach their full growth in
two or three weeks; whereas the corner teeth grow
more leisurely, and are different from the fore ones,
in that they resemble a shell, thence, by horsemen,
they are styled at that period, shelly; the shell, or
mark teeth. In the process of growth, the shell, with
these teeth, gradually disappears, leaving a vacuum.
At six years old, this vacuum or hollowness begins
to fill up, and the first fleshy substance becomes a
brownish or dark spot, the mark, resembling the
eye of a bean, continuing in that state, until the
seventh year, but gradually filling up, and the
mark becoming lighter in colour. The mark being-
filled up, the horse's mouth is said to he full. He is
styled aged. At eight years old, the mark, in general,
is entirely obliterate. Some few, particularly certain
foreign horses, forming an exception, and carrying
the mark in their mouths until their tenth year. The
gross and fraudful cruelty of imposing upon a colt
the appearance of age, by extracting the foal's teeth,
as above shown, ought, on detection, to ruin the cha-
racter of the miscreant dealer; also that of forging:
the semblance of youth in the aged, which is per-
formed by hollowing the teeth with a graver, and
burning a counterfeit mark with a small iron. Long
teeth are also filed down to hide age; by which the
wretched animal becomes unable to chew his food.
Alas ! no additional period of labour is required to
fill to the brim, their cup of horror and misery.

SECTION III.�Breeding.

Ihe ceremony of introduction of the horse to the
mare is well known, in all its particular tactics, by
°^Ur stable, particularly our country people. In the
^stud it is usual, previously, to try young or uncertain
mares with an ordinary stallion, styled a teaser, that
^tne superior may not be fatigued, or have his vigour
exhausted. Mares known to be quiet and thoroughly
ready, are offered to the horses with their legs at
bberty, and only held by the head; otherwise they
^are hoppled, or their legs tackled. Such is perhaps
universally held a sufficient precaution; but it has
Hot always proved so ; and fatal accidents have occa-
^slonally occurred, from headstrong and determined
mares plunging violently, and getting their hinder
^iegs at liberty, or throwing themselves down. Stal-
"°ns, at different periods, have been killed outright,
m this way, from kicks on the testes, or having their
^iegs broken. To couple accidents together, though
^ansmg from different causes, a racing stallion was
^lost, some years since, by being put, with a full
-Si°_2^ic}i> to a mare. The violence of the action
°aused a rupture of the intestines. Many years past,
^and immediately after a fatal accident which came to
"is knowledge, the present writer recommended the
security of leathern straps, attached to posts fixed in
^tne ground, in which straps the legs and fetlocks of
the mare mig-ht be confined all fours; a railing to be
Placed on each side, as with the leaping-bar. To
nose who slight a precaution of this kind, the author
egs leave to propose a question:�how would they

relish and digest the loss of a horse, worth a couple
of thousands, by a sudden stroke, some fine sunshiny
morning ? The stallion not being overburdened with
work, the mare is customarily covered twice, and is
again presented to the horse at her period of nine
days, when, if she be stinted, she will refuse him. It
has occasionally happened that, a mare not taking by
the first horse, is tried with another, whence the un-
certainty in some racing pedigrees; the case of that
of the highfamed Eclipse, the dam of which was said
to have been covered both by Shaksjaeare and Marsk,
as I was informed by Col. O'Kelly's old groom, who
had the care of Eclipse. Barren mares are generally
horsing throughout the season, and never refuse the
horse; as we are assured on high authority, " the
barren v/omb is never satisfied." Should a mare in
this predicament be thorough shaped, not old, and of
capital pedigree, that to obtain stock from her might
be highly desirable, there might be some probability
of remedy, in the course of turning her abroad during
the succeeding full twelve months. The motive is
obvious. It is the concern of the mare's proprietor
that, she be not put to a stallion exhausted by cover-
ing too many mares in a day.

With the exception of racing, and stallions and
mares of a superior class, both stallion and brood-
mare may be put to their accustomed labour; that of
the mare particularly being moderate, and further
reduced as her burden becomes apparent and heavy.
The stallion, however, should never cover during
labour, but in the morning after rest. Accidents are
too frequent from the neglect of this humane and

profitable precaution, in respect to the mare; more
Specially in the case of twins, from the weight of
which the mare will often appear dull and sleepy, �-
with a temporary loss of appetite. A cart mare of
Wine, thoughtlessly retained too late in work, cast
remarkably fine and large twin colt foals. In the
case of twins, one of them (the strongest) may be
easily brought up by hand, on cow's milk; in which
mode, the old racers, Cade, Milksop, and others
^smce, were nurtured, having lost their dams. Admi-
nistering drugs to the mare which has stolen a leap,
m order to procure abortion, is an act of cruelty, and
often permanently injurious to her constitution ; the
attempt to effect it by manual operation, detestable.

The term of gestation with the mare is variable ;
from eleven months and odd days, to three hundred
and sixty-three days, which latter number, I suppose,
^may be deemed the utmost. She is supposed to carry
her first foal longer than the succeeding, and to go
longer with a colt than with a filly. She brings �
*orth in a standing position; seldom in the day time, _"

by night, or early in the morning. The mare is
perhaps liable to as little labour or error in parturition
as any female whatever. In case of an exception,
"mely recourse should be had to some one skilful in
^ne practice of animal obstetrics. The approach of par-
turition is indicated a few days previous, by the swell-
^,ng °f the udder, the appearance of milk, the swollen
state of the matrix, and the thrusting out of the tail.
At this period, the mare should be watched night and
^daY, lest by her choosing an improper place in which
to bring forth j her produce may be lost; a risk which

the author in former days, imprudently, more than
once, incurred. In cold, wet, and bad weather, it is
far more safe, and consistent with the preservation of
health, both of the dam and foal, for her to be taken
within doors, to bring forth in a roomy outhouse.

To common, or chance-medley breeders-, whose
mares take the risk of heaths and wilds, and thence
have been immemorially liable to casualties from
ditch, drain, bog, or other dangerous places, wherein
the fruit of twelve months' expectation of their pro-
prietors may be foundered in an instant, a few words
of caution will not be superfluous. In the first place,
the mare's reckoning should be most punctually
attended to; and at the eleventh month, beyond
which there is no certainty, she should be sedulously
watched, or taken to a place of safety. Having
foaled successfully, the next care is to provide her
with the best and most succulent pasturage, without
which the growth of the foal will be nipped in the
bud, and rendered subsequently defective, from the
inferior quantity and poor quality of the mare's milk.
This care at the commencement is indispensable to
the profit of even breeders of the inferior class, who
rear stock, either for use or sale, at the least possible
expense. Indeed, breeding horses, or any of our
domestic animals, to a profitable purpose, is an under-
taking dependent on a variety of observances and
precautions; among which it is not of the least con-
sequence, to keep in a regular memorandum-book
the exact dates when the female, of whatever species,
received the male; an important item, which has
been too often trusted to memory and hearsay.

Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland, the
Northern and Midland Counties, have been imme-
^morially our chief breeding districts; the former for
saddle and coach cattle, the latter for heavy draught
and troop horses. Racers are bred in both North
^and South; and, generally, horse-breeding in certain
degrees enters into the rural system of all counties.
*he breed of foresters, a small, but useful species of
the galloway and poney size, is greatly decreased, or
Nearly extinct. The culture of waste lands, and the
^lrumensely increased demand for coach and sized nags,
¹ has been the cause. The New Forest, half a century
?i|ice, used to turn out, annually, a great number of
the former description, well bred and extremely use-
^tul; and upon Tiptree Heath, in Essex, some good
^tQugh hacks were bred, many of them out of Norway
^mares.

SECTION IV.�The Stud.

¹⁰ establish this upon a considerable scale, and in
the first style of adaptation and convenience of every
*^lnd, the country chosen should be dry, hilly, and
irreg_ui_ar; ^_ne _sojj calcareous, with sweet herbage,
and good water in abundance. A sufficient shelter
timber is advantageous. The breeding and rearing
° ^racers, hunters, and hacks, are here contemplated.
^nere are, perhaps, many parts in South Wales, in
Which these purposes would be well answered. A
umber of well and high fenced paddocks and inclo-
ses, commensurate with the extent of the stud,
¹ » m course, be understood; as also of sheds in
^ose ^closures, for sheltering the stock in winter

or unfavourable weather. From the nature of a soil
and situation similar to the above, a correspondent
effect may be rationally expected, on the feet, limbs,
and tendinous system of the horses bred; whilst a
clear and elastic air will be equally productive of
beneficial effects to their wind and animal spirits.
Ample and separated yard room and stabling, with
outhouses, and every convenience for the storing of
provender, will, in conformity, not be neglected; to
add, for form sake, a convenient residence for the
stud groom and his boys and assistants.

To digress a few words in this place, on the im-
mense studs of the ancients, in the original breeding-
countries of Asia and Africa, from the waste and
unappropriated state of their lands�Herodotus writes
of royal breeding studs, each to the amount of six-
teen thousand mares and four hundred stallions. The
vast multitudes of these animals which, in a wild
state, roam over the almost boundless continent of
South America, and the southernmost borders of the
North, originating in a few stallions and mares ex-
ported thither by the Spaniards, two or three centuries
since, have rendered them of little or no worth, but
for their hides: and Captain Ashe, in his amusing
and instructive travels, quotes the price of horses
about the year 1810, in Louisiana, in any number,
at a guinea a head, though he describes them as a
breed not to be excelled in the world. It seems that,
some time previously, and before the Spaniards had
parted with that country to the United States, a
dollar was the price of a horse, and half a dollar
that of an ox or cow! Horses are in plenty in the

United States of North America, and the breed more
similar to the English, in form and activity, though
perhaps generally smaller, and many of their hacks
^are amblers, or running trotters.

Returning to the English stud, and describing it
^as intended to be complete at all points, the necessity
flight be presumed of an adjoining farm, sufficient in
^extent to produce the requisite quantities of com,
^sWaw, hay, artificial grasses, and roots. At any rate,
^tue stud should be joined by land enough, on which
^nilght be cultivated the needful quantities of lucerne
*⁰¹' soiling; and, should the soil be sufficiently deep,
°* carrots; an indispensable article in this concern,
*^or autumnal and early spring use. Our chief breed-
^lng establishments of first sized heavy dray and cart
worses, chiefly for the metropolitan market, are found
|ⁿ rich and deep grassy soils; since the same full bite
^ls required for these, to rear them up to their utmost
^Slze and bulk, as is indispensable for the same pur-
pose, i_n the large varieties of horned cattle and
sheep.

*°e phraseology of the stud, as regards the
^U!1rnals, runs thus�stallion, sire, beood-'mare,

^AMj FOAL, COLT, FILLY, FULL BROTHER, BRO-

^1IEr in blood. This last term indicates an identity

Wood on both sides, but not of individual sire and

^am- The vounar stock retain the names of colt
or fill

^mlY> until nearly approaching their fifth year,

^len ^ey assume the appellation of horse, gelding,

mare. The novel dandy term, entire horse, has

en noted; _we have lately observed in print the

^mjeniale brought into stabular use.

The chief preliminary considerations to breeding
are�the species required, choice of stallion and mare,
and the season of putting them together. De Grey,
an old English writer, insisted on the preference due
to autumn, for reason scarcely worth recapitulation
at this period, unless from necessity with a favourite
mare. The spring is always chosen, and it matters
not how early, with those breeders who can depend
on early pasturage. The radical error in our general
breeding system is, that the form and size of the
stallion alone is particularly attended to, whilst the
form and aptitude of the mare is little considered.
Hence probably, the cause of our notorious and con-
stant scarcity of thorough shaped horses. In order
to produce such, it would seem that there is a neces-
sity for a just symmetry and proportion in both
horse and mare; at least, as far as regards the most
important points, which have been already discussed.
At any rate, with regard to those, that which is
deficient in one should be made up by the other.
In breeding hacks, that is to say, road horses, re-
course is generally had to racing stallions, to such as
have a show of blood, or trotters, as in Norfolk.
These generally cover at one to five guineas. The
opposite modes, with regard to expense in breed-
ing horses, have been noted. In the racing studs,
and perhaps in all, where high form and size, for
sale, are the objects, the brood mares and foals are
allowed corn. In the common breeding system, the
purpose being to obtain stock at the least possible
cost, the mares and foals shift through spring and
summer, wherever they can find a bite of grass; and

during winter, in the straw-yard, upon that provender,
with the addition perhaps of a portion of ordinary hay.
Carrots would be a vast help to breeders of this des-
cription, and the only person, who, it may be sup-
posed, w^rould profit by such economy, are farmers not
solicitous about figure in their teams.

The best market for brood mares, whether in regard
to price or quality, will be found in the London Re-
positories, during the months of September and Oc-
tober. All descriptions, one perhaps excepted, may
then and there be met with, and many of good age,
P'ematurely worked down, in that real hell of horses,
°^ur flying stage work. Such mares, turned off for
the winter, well kept with hay and carrots, and well
sheltered in dry straw-yards and sheds abroad, their
�constitutions being sound, will be in the best possible
state for breeding in the spring. The exception
above refers to draught horses of the first" size and
class, mares of which are seldom seen in London, but
must be sought in the Midland Counties and Lin-
colnshire.

*o commence with the particular incidents of the

^reeding system,�should the mare have foaled suc-

-cssfully abroad, in a well sheltered pasture, her milk

PPearing copious and fluent, and the weather fayour-

^e' ^she may be suffered to remain, requiring nothing
^ner than daily inspection and her allowance of
^corn, if such should be bestowed. On the other
hand, should her milk be obstructed and fail, either
rom cold caught or other cause, she should be im-
mediately taken _up to the house, and enticed to lie
iown upon _a l_arge _and _deep littered bed of fresh

straw, and every method taken to comfort her, and
to encourage the secretion of milk. To promote this
end, as much warm mild ale should be allowed, as
she will drink; or if she refuse it, she may be drench-
ed with a couple of quarts, to be repeated as may ap-
pear necessary; her food being the finest and most
fragrant hay, sweet grains, with mashes of corn and
pollard. In cases of chill and great weakness, the
old well known article, cordial ball, may be given in
warm ale. Should, however, the case be inflamma-
tory, from previous high condition and fullness of
blood, cordial ball and all stimulants should be strictly
avoided, and the regimen confined to warm water and
gruel in as copious quantities as can be administered.
Should further measures of similar tendency be in-
dicated, a mild solution of Glauber's or Epsom Salts,
(10 or 12 oz. in a pail of warm water,) may be given,
which she may be induced to drink by being kept
short of water. A moderate quantity of blood may
be drawn, should the symptoms plainly demand it,
not otherwise. Daily walking exercise abroad, the
mare being clothed if necessary, should succeed, until
she be sufficiently recovered to be returned to her
pasture. During the inability of the mare to give
suck, the foal must be sustained on cow's milk. This
alien milk will generally disorder and gripe the foal,
for which, the best remedy is two or three tea spoon-
fuls of rhubarb in powder, with an equal quantity of
magnesia, in warm gruel. This medicine should be
given to the foals of labouring mares, which are often
griped by sucking pent milk. The disorder arising
from wet and cold, a table spoonful each, of the best

brandy and syrup of white poppies, may be given
several times. Mares that come early, and in bad
Weather, should invariably be brought to the house to
foal.

■t oals run abroad with their dams until autumn; if
Weakly, their weaning should be deferred as late as
Possible. It has been before observed that, in the
racing studs, and those where first-rate stock is the
°bject, the foals are corn-fed, from their earliest in-
clination to it. It should have been observed that
geldings are not to be admitted among the brood
^mai'es, as by leaping them, or harassing them about,
abortion may be occasioned. Foals should be handled
at the earliest period, and as soon as possible accus-
tomed to be led with the halter. Castration is
usually performed at two years old; but with the thin
^a»d low crested, should be deferred until the latest
convenient period. Spading of mares has been long
since out of practice. The present writer, many years
^a§°> successfully revived the ancient practice of
°^ck'Ng the sucking foal at a month old, an opera-
!on which may then be performed with a sharp knife,
^s ^attended with trifling pain, and no risk; whereas,
^oth the pain and the danger of the operation on
uults, are considerable. The colts and fillies, after
^lng Weaned, and the mares becoming dry, may
' gam associate through the winter, and until- the ap-
proaching parturition of the mares demand another
reparation: the next is that necessary one of the colts
from the filli_es.

SECTION V.�Of the Stallion.
In the common breeding system, it has already been
said that he, as well as the mare, may be put to
his accustomed labour; and in former days, there
were some instances, that of old Babram a re-
markable one, of racing stallions, whilst in training,
covering mares, and yet running with their usual
success. But generally, both stallions and brood
mares, in all capital studs, are restricted to their pro-
per business of breeding, and the mare receives the
horse annually, as long as she retains the power of
conception. Previously to the establishment of the
racing system in this country, which has been the
foundation of so many and great improvements in
our national breed of horses, it was the custom to
turn a stallion loose in the pasture, among a certain
number of mares, generally twenty, whence a number
of accidents must have occurred, and the powers of
the stallion have been by no means economized. We
moderns have been too much inclined to run into the
other extreme, by suffering stallions to cover so many
mares in a day, that from the exhausted nature of the
horse, many mares miss, and those which succeed
can scarcely be expected to bring other than a weak
and puny, or ill-formed progeny. Here we have
another obvious reason for the great number of ordi-
nary and ill-shaped horses, which are annually bred
in a country renowned beyond all others, for its breed
of those indispensable animals. The golden rule is
this�a horse should never be put to serve a greater
number of mares in a day, than he can serve with vi-

gour. W_e address this, however, to the proprietor of
the mare, with an ancient adage at the tail of it, si
populus vult decipi, decipialur, which, being inter-
preted, means, if people choose to be humbugged, let
'hem. In the common way, no horse should be suf-

^ered to cover, when faint and exhausted by his day's
labour. .

I he stallion of the regular stud is kept throughout
"■he year, in the highest condition; and should be al-
lowed as much of the heaviest and best oats, as he
can eat with an appetite, and as his digestive powers
^are able to subdue and convert into nourishment.�
Experience has discovered a necessity for this; at the
same time, it should be remembered, that the horse is
^an animal peculiarly liable to intestinal accumulation ;
^and a stallion being thus full fed throughout the year,
his intestines will necessarily be overloaded, and his
Mood incrassated and heated above the standard of
^real health. Hence it appears reasonable, though
P^robably seldom practised, that he might be greatly

enefited and his powers renovated, by two or three
^mi'd purges, previous to the commencement of the *
covering season. Even in the midst of that season,
^s ^ould the horse become heated and faint, his bowels
confined, with loss of appetite, dullness, and want of

gour, no time will be lost by allowing him a few

^ays, in which a mild purge may be exhibited. The

Purgmg _salt_s may sometimes be sufficient in this case.

due attention to cleanliness should not be overlook-

� A stallion frequently gets a wound or excoriation,

he part becomes foul, when he is quiet and will

P^e' mit it, ablution will be of great benefit and comfort,

and the excoriations should be touched with tincture
of myrrh, or a saturnine lotion. A famous racing

^"^ stallion of former days died in consequence of a mor-
tification in his sheath, occasioned entirely by un-
cleanness and neglect. The feet also of some have
beenjo totally neglected, that they have become tm-
� able to walk; the case of the far-famed Eclipse, which
from that inability, made his last journey in a car^_
riage purposely constructed. The toes of these horses
should be kept short, the feet regularly pared from
excrescences, and often suppled with water; nor
should walking exercise and airings abroad be neg-
lected. Immediately after the covering season, the
stallion should be soiled with fine fresh-cut natural
grass, lucerne or melibot.

There are certain external and visible defects in the
horse and mare, which may be, and often are propa-
gated. The chief of these are splents, spavins, round
and gourdy legs, subject to grease and running
thrushes; crooked hams, thick, ill-shaped and ill-set
heads, imperfect eyes. Good or evil qualities like-
wise, are propagated, and it is not advisable to breed
from a restiff horse or mare. Saltraim by Eclipse, a
horse which ran at Newmarket when blind, commu-
nicated that defect to his progeny; among others, to
Sir Charles Bunbury's Whiskey, which being blind

**- himself, got scarcely any foals that retained their
sight. Asthmatic or broken-winded mares, with few
exceptions, are barren; but age need be no bar to the
sound and healthy mare, since good stock has been
produced by the aged of both sexes; although the
period between five and ten years must be deemed

the most favourable. In the year 1821, the singular
fact occurred in Wales, of a mare producing four colt
^foals at a birth, all black.

SECTION VI.�-Colt Breaking.

Deducing the colt to obedience, teaching him his
duties, and rendering him steady in his paces, these
^lndispensable operations are signified by the old and
^well known term breaking. This, with racers, is oc-
casionally performed at a year old; but generally,
^c°lts are taken in hand, at rising, that is to say, com-
^Jng three years old. Their joints have at that period
become somewhat knit, and their powers consolidated,
enabling them to bear the weight of the rider and the
necessary exertions. The strange barbarity of Devon-
shire horse-breaking, twenty years ago, is justly re-
probated in the " General Treatise on Cattle," the
author having been an eyewitness, and made his re-
Port to the late Sir Lawrence Palk, the proprietor of



		CONTENTS.
	VI	CONTENTS.

SECTION IV. p. 21. The countries best adapted to breeding the horse. Convcniencies necessary in a regular breeding establishment. The royal breed- ing studs of the ancients�of the moderns in South America. Breed of the United States North America. The English stud. Soils proper for breeding the heavy draught horse. The Phra- seology of the stud, with the late dandy additions. Chief preli- minaries in breeding. Form of the mare to be considered. In regular studs corn allowed to the brood mares and foals. Use of carrots. Markets for brood mares. Particular incidents of the breeding system. Accidents to the brood mare. Weaning the foal. Castration. Ancient practice of docking the foal at a month old, successfully revived by the author, p. 521�27. SECTION V. p. 28. The Stallion. Racing stallions formerly used in the stud, whilst in training. Broodmares. Ancient dangerous practice of turning the stallion loose among the mares. Modern extreme of an opposite nature. Treatment of the Stallion. Cleanliness. Case of an accidental wound. Death of a famous racing stallion (King Herod) from uncleanness and neglect. Neglect of Eclipse's feet. External and visible defects in a horse and mare, that may be propagated, also good or evil qualities. Blindness from Saltram and Whiskey. Broken winded mares generally barren. Age no bar in a healthy mare. Welsh mare produced four colt foals at a birth, all black, p. 28�31. SECTION VI. p. 31. Colt breaking, of racers at a year old. Barbarous mode in Devon- shire twenty years since, reported by the author to the late Sir Lawrence Palk. Colt tackle. Character of the true domitor equorum, or colt breaker�method. Unsafe to leave colts tied up by night. Loss of Sir Charles Bunbury's full brother to Smo- lensko. Method of treating stubborn or restiff colts. Importance of giving them a good mouth. The paces. First shoeing. Analogy of temperament and disposition between the horse and the human animal. The naturally vicious colt. Nature of shy- ing in the horse, and its proper treatment. Affected shyers. Three cases of the author. Mode with a careless and blundering goer. Incorrigible biters, p. 31�36. SECTION VII. _p. 36. Castration�the rationale of the practice. Nicking and Crop- ping�barbarous and useless. Trimming, the modern method. The mane and tail. The hogged mane. Breaking and training the slow draught horse�should be taught to back at command. The plug tails of former days advantageously superseded by the



	CONTENTS.
	CONTENTS.	VII
		VII

switch. Break carriage for the coach horse. As to matches with coach horses. Saddle horseFURNrruRE. Crupper and saddle cloth nearly obsolete. Martingale. The sash or breastplate introduced by Sir John Lade. The jackboot stirrup H la Francaise. Bridles, the ancient snaffle and double reigned curb. Variety of bits, or instruments of torture. The snaffle-bridle horse. The check cord. Mild bits most profitable. The curb with a single rein, severe and unfavourable. General riding, or jockey system of England, little in accordance with the riding school practice� use of the latter, p. 36�42. SECTION VIII. p. 42. Shoeing. Heavy shoes of former days. Improved about seventy years since, by Lord Pembroke, Osmer, Bartlet, Snape, and Clarke of Edinburgh. Our national Veterinary College, the idea originating with the late Lord Grosvenor. Professor Charles Vial de Saintbel. His character�of his successors. Notorious infallibility of every writer's favourite form of shoe. Modern novelties in shoeing, and the veterinary art, several centuries old. Ccesar Fiaschi's discoveries and practice. The terrible buttress should never come near a weak foot, perhaps any foot, the paring knife being the proper instrument. The toe may be generally- made most free with. The good and tough hoof. Shoeing the horse, a necessary evil. Error of the late Mr. White. The foot of the horse described. The once celebrated shoeing system of La Fosse. Opening the heels. Exceptions to the general prin- ciples of shoeing. Internal structure of the foot. Mobility and elasticity of tendons, in defiance of the early decrees of the Vete- rinary College. Natural functions of the frog. Summary of the parts of the internal and sensible foot, p. 45!�52. SECTION IX. p. 52. Defects of the feet and legs. Wide, flat, and soft hoofs�their oppo- sites, with contracted or narrow heels and deficient frogs. Too small feet for the size of the horse, a defect. General defect in the feet of English road horses, a thin and weak hoof, and tender crust. Grand defect in a saddle or quick draught horse, the toe not pointing in a right line, whence ' knocking and cutting,' either with the toe or heel. Hinder lioofs the strongest. ' Ham- mer and pincers,' or over-reaching. The running thrush. Corns. Sandcracks. False quarter. Quittor or javart. The founder. Grogginess, styled by the Italians sobitaturu, or surbating. Canker. Loss of hoof. Nerving, no novelty, p. 52�56. SECTION X. p. 57. Various defects in the legs, their seat and causes�in the hoofs and heels. A further enumeration, comprehending those in different



	xii
	xii	CONTENTS.

about the year 1760. The author's first knowledge of old Mr. Tattersall in 1773. Character of old Tat. Langhorne's Repo- sitory, Barbican, now the property of Mr. Dixon. The Horse Bazaar, King Street, Portman Square. The Repository Gray's Inn Road, opened in 1828. Sale days at the various London repositories, with their rules, and the proper method of attending them. Conditions of sale at the new repository, Gray's Inn Road �at the Horse Bazaar. Smithfield, the horse market, an epi- tome of Hell. Where to purchase first rate slow draught horses �foreign horses, p. 144�155. SECTION XXIV. p. 155. Warranty. Good hard swearing in the case. Anecdote of Judge Mansfield and a Bow Street runner. Present rules of warranty, and manoeuvres. Blemishes. Judicial decisions, p. 155�159. SECTION XXV. p. 159. Equitation, male and female. The horseman to ascertain, before mounting, that the furniture be rightly placed. Negligence even of regular grooms, in this respect. Better your horse be cruppered than do worse. The old breastplate. Mounting, how performed. The perfect centaur. The sporting seat on horseback. The straight-kneed jockey. Foot home in the stirrup. Spurring. Dismounting. Mounting on the off side. How a horse should be held for mounting. Altering the length of the stirrup leathers. Bakcwell's opinion in the case of a horse stumbling. The start and progress. Jog trot the pace of health. Seat in the various paces. Rising in the trot, and lift- ing and working the horse in the gallop, purely English practices. The trot and cauter. Trotting and cantering hacks, p. 159�166. SECTION XXVI. p. 167. The left the right side of the road, in English. Use and abuse of the curb. Hard and sharp snaffles. The folly and cruelty of torturing bits. To ensure a good mouth, young horses should he first put to work with mild bits. The good snaffle-bridle horse described. The two different intents of a pull. Danger- ous ways, hills. The martingale a necessary evil. Little success of the attempt to amend natural defects. When the reins may be taken separate in each hand. Seat in case of plunging, kick- ing, or rearing. Correction. The vicious horse. Warranty. Use of spurs in a critical case. True use of the reins. The seat. Starting and shying. Great severity ever to be reserved for vice and roguery. The docile and kind nag�an example from Sex's livery stables. Duty of masters to teach their ser- vants mild and fair treatment of animals, p. 167�174.



		CONTENTS.
	XV111	CONTENTS.

thirds�advice thereon. Quarter and half mile races at New- market�yearling and two year old courses, in times long past, p. 267�275. SECTION XLI. p. 275. Butchering and cutting up race horses alive !�the dear delight of all parties, a mere customary and delectable gratification, of no or very questionable use. Difficulty of reform principally with the jockies. Execrable murder of the flea-bitten grey gelding� very amusing to a dinner company. Hull's Hussar cut up alive at Epsom. Hull's directions to his jockey Bill Barnes. Old Frampton. Address to our high sporting aristocracy. Sir Charles Bunbury's plan successful. Appeal to the jockies, Buckle, Goodisson, Robinson, Chifney. Old Sam. Chifney not a hard hearted man, p. 275�279. SECTION XLII. p. 279. Pedigree. The Helmsley Turk. The implicit faith of a writer in the Sporting Magazine. The author's acknowledgment of a former error. Bay Bolton. Partner. Jigg. Bloody But- tocks. Sampson. The Highflyer�portrait of the Darley Arabian. Universal opinion of Sampson's defect in pedigree. The old groom's report on Sampson's dam. Carter's Driver not thorough bred. A lengthy rigmarole on the disputed pedi- gree of Eclipse. His character. Always his own jockey. Description. Named from the total eclipse in 1764. Prognosis of Bernard Smith. Eclipse purchased by Wildman. The double covernot disputed till Wildman became the proprietor of Marske. The oath. Sale of Marske. No resemblance in Eclipse or his stock to the Marskes. Marske described. Spilletta, dam of Eclipse. Tyndal, formerly in O'Kelly's stables. Family resem- blance of Eclipse to Shakespeare and his stock. As to pedigree and performance, between Shakespeare and Marske, the palm probably to be conceded to the former. The question of no consequence, and the speculation windy. A queer illustration. Matthews, Adolphus, Nimrod and Co. p. 279�290. SECTION XLII. p. 290. Great advantage to Eclipse, from not starting until five years old. An occasional recourse to that plan recommended. Importance of weight to a racer. The old opinion. Dead weight. Specu- lation on racing weights. Handy capping. Crossing and jostling, Pyrrhus and Mambrino. Abolished by the Jockey Club. Rule in the case. Fairness and consideration of the present racing system, with one exception. Comparison between the racers of past and present times, brought to a point. Shark perhaps the



			47
		THE HORSE.	47

	late Mr. White, a very popular and useful veterina- rian, came to a hasty conclusion on this topic, when he asserted, that " the feet of all horses which have not been taken from a state of nature, or improperly shod, are nearly of the same shape." The real fact is, dame nature seems to have made nearly the same blunders in that respect as her pupil art. As to a particular description�" The foot of the horse is sur- rounded and defended in front, sides, and at bottom, by the horny sole, an ungular substance, thicker than the human, in proportion as the animal is larger. The heels partake of the same kind of defence, but of a thinner texture. The foot, being open at the back _^~ and not surrounded by the firm sole as in front, is ob- viously in need of support; and the intervening frog__. is destined by nature to that office; on which account, and having so large a portion of the general mass to sustain, particularly while the animal is in a state of inaction, it is composed of a very tough and elastic substance. The frog moreover serves as a cushion, rest, or salient point for the tendon, or flexor muscle of the back sinews. The bars or binders are those parts situated between the heel and frog, and which, by a mutual resistance from within, help to dilate and oppose the contraction of the heels. The horny defends the fleshy sole above it, and the internal parts of the foot, from the accidental contact of hard bodies; but from its concave form, appears not to have been intended by nature to bear weight, except- ing round the extremities adjoining the wall. The wall, or crust of the foot, is the thick edge surround- ing it, from heel to heel, it is the bottom of that por-

-^



			PREFACE.

		Methinks I hear certain of my readers ex- claim, "What! ecce iterum Crispinus/�more on the well-worn subject of the Horse, from this prosing and argumentative old man !"� The act is indeed committed: but, for the last time�new editions to old books excepted. The size of the present will not be alarming; and if much novelty cannot be expected on the sub- ject, yet that subject and all others, of necessity, vary so much with times and circumstances, as to authorise further attempts at public uti- lity. Moreover, somewhat must be conceded to an old author, on the score of reminding his patrons the public, of his former labours. The object of this little book, a galloway or poney in size, is to form a convenient manual for the use of the hitherto uninitiated, who may have neither inclination nor leisure to ride the great horse in larger volumes ; or whose other indis- pensable avocations may have precluded them from the opportunity of obtaining practical in- formation on a subject, certainly of great and every day importance in this country. The difficulty of obtaining good, safe, and useful horses, for any purpose, always suffici- ently great, even in this country, has been of



	CONTENTS.

SECTION I. General Character of the Horse, p. 1. Indigenous breed and improvements, p. 2. Measures pursued by the government in the reigns of Henry the Seventh and Eighth to promote and extend the breeding of horses. The quality of English horses from that period to the reign of Elizabeth. Foreign breeds then imported, p. 3, 4. Racing, an early and peculiar English diversion. The Smoothfield or Smithfield races in London. The breeding system peculiar to England. The art of farriery originally derived from the schools of Italy and France. Great number of writers on farriery and veterinary Science, in the reign of James the First. Early improvement chiefly confined to the racer, hunter, and hack. The improvement of our coach, troop horses, and chargers, commenced about sixty years since. Anecdote of a late Lord Mayor of London. Present import of heavy draught horses from the Continent. Military and coach horses. Scotch and Welsh ponies, p. 4�7. SECTION II. p. 8. Divisions and subdivisions of the horse genus into a number of species and varieties of quality and nomenclature. Designation of thorough bred, or the Racer. The Yorkshire horse Sampson, p. 8, 9. Procreation. Age of the horse. Two aged geldings at Dulwich. Age at which the colt is put to labour. Conven- tional (general) form of the horse. Of the hack, hunter or racer, and coach horse. Of the slow draught horse. The old Suffolk punch. Drawing dead pulls. Gibbing. Yorkshire cross in the Suffolk punches. Cleveland bays. Present Norfolk cart horse, p. 10�13. Colours. Age of the horse, its marks. Fraud and cruelty practised in the case, p. 14�16. SECTION III. p. 17. Management in the breeding Stud. Fatal accidents to the horse. Method of security formerly proposed by the author. Barren mares. Treatment of the stallion and brood mare. Twin foals. Detestable cruelties to procure abortion. Term of gestation. Indications of parturition. Chance medley and regular breeding. Chief breeding districts. Foresters, p. 17�21.

		»



			Vlll CONTENTS.

		parts of the body. Professor Coleman and Mr. White on the bursts mucuscc or windgalls. Strains in the back sinews. Break- ing down. Ligamentary shoulder strains, difficult to be distin- guished from lameness in the legs or feet. Strained in the loins, or megrim horses. Lameness in the stifle�of the hip-joint, round or whirl-bone. Jardons or capped hocks. Stringhalt. Rheu- matism, p. 57�62. , SECTION XI. p. 62. General appearance and condition of the horse, of consequence to a purchaser. Lean and unthrifty. Hide bound or surfeit. War- bles or small tumours on the back, indications of high keep and want of exercise. The dreadful and incurable glanders. Lam- pascus�the lampas in the mouth. Gigs, bladders or flaps. Barbs or paps. The cankered or ulcerated mouth. Hurts from heavy and lacerating bits. Wolves' teeth. The legs. Chronic lameness from derangement of the internal structure of the foot, a lost case. The navicular lameness, said to have been discovered by Messrs. Turners of Croydon and Regent Street. The patten- shoe. The author's deference to the superior authority of Mr. Goodwin. The horrible, damnable, and useless conti- nental OPERATION OF TEARING OUT, OR DRAWING THE SOLE �now, or ought to be, universally and utterly exploded in Britain. Shoeing. The common methods. Osmer's seated shoe. Mr. Goodwin's shoe. This man's shoe, and that man's shoe� fancy articles, p. 62�68. SECTION XII. p. 68. Fanciful theories. La Fosse's half-moon shoes. The patent iron frog. Expansion. Necessity of iron shoes. The legs univer- sally fail before the feet. The great consequence of this branch of art, p. 68�72. SECTION XIII. p. 72. The bar shoe. Mr. Goodwin's bar shoe. And old experiment with those shoes. Snape. Grass shoes or tips. Hunting and racing shoe, or plate. Probable use of Cherry's portable forge for the running stables. Ancient screw shoe. The moveable toe for hard wearing horses. Frost shoes. Frost nails in racing plates for dry and slippery courses. Old sweepstakes over Epsom, by officers of the Guards. Spectacles for Jockeys in wet seasons and deep courses, p. 72�77. SECTION XIV. p. 78. Striking and wounding the legs. The common cause. Osmer's proposed remedy. Moorcroft's experiments. The only resource



			CONTENTS. ix

		a leathern boot. Poultice and water boots. The miserable practice of compelling a horse to stand upon the bare stones. Dung or clay stopping for hoofs, hurtful�other measures recom- mended. Allowing great modern improvement, the old leven, haste, profit, and bad shoeing, too much the order of the day. Bad effects of the heavy, wide webbed, convex-surfaced shoes for draught horses worked on pavements. Opening the heels, p. 78�82. SECTION XV. p. 82. Old English shoeing. Quotation from Blunderville, on the art generally. Ccesar Fiaschi on the narrow heels of Barbs and Jen- nets�on the form of the nails, and on shoeing the perfect hoof. On the imperfect hoof. Paring and shoeing for interfering. Character of the planch, pancelet, or bar-shoe. Enumeration of the varieties and fancy shoes of that period. The Turkish shoe nsed in Italy for racers. The present countersunk nail then in use. Figures in Blunderville, of fifty different bits, and a head strain, three only of them by him regarded as useful. Quotation from Goodwin on the character of the present race of operative shoeing smiths. Farriers' tools in present use from the same. The drawing knife much improved by Mr. Long, instrument maker of Holborn. List of the farriers' instruments in the days of Blunderville and Markham, p. 82�90. SECTION XVI. p. 90. The Stable. Stables of the first class in the country�as they are in the metropolis. Flooring or pavement. Draining. Aeration. Mr. Goodwin's experiment with cast iron flooring. Advantage to a horse to stand loose. The author's plan of converting stalls into boxes for that purpose. Racks and mangers. Cleanliness, whitewashing, fumigation. No manger in a loose stall. The circular, straight, or level rack, lower than usual. Iron prefer- able. The hay chamber to be abolished in all regular stables. Receptacles for horse corn. Heated and impure atmosphere of tlie old running stables. Improvement commenced in the stables of the late Earl Grosvenor. A moderate warmth of stable tem- perature, with the periodical admission of fresh and pure air, constitutionally necessary to the horse. The Rodunda form of stabling, its various convenience. Due thickness of stable walls. Dr. Plot, in the History of Oxfordshire, his plan of a eorn chest, p. 90�100. SECTION XVII. p. 100. General stable duties and customs. Protection of weak horses against the stonger while feeding. Cruel anecdote of a head carter. Compelling horses to stand in their stalls on the bare A2



		X CONTENTS.

			pavement no novelty�recommended by Morgan, who wrote in the reign of James the First, and successfully ridiculed and opposed by Michael Baret. The nomenclature of the stable. The tea-kettle groom. The grand points of feeding and care of the legs and feet. The turf and hunting stables stand at the head. Anecdote of a trading groom. Clothing. The roller, and ' getting up the carcass.' Covering for the loins of coach and cart horses, abroad upon duty, during bad weather. Exer- cise for hacks and hunters clothed or not. Clipping or burning the hirsute horse. Dressing and currying the nag. The teeth of the currycomb should not be too sharp, p. 100�107. SECTION XVIII. p. 108. English stable food for saddle horses. Superior profit of good heavy oats. Ground corn for cart horses. No general rule as to quantities. Racks for hay not easily to be dispensed with. Horses eating their litter. Occasional use of clover, lucerne or melilot hay. Horses given to drinking. The golden rule in the case. Soft and hard water. Exercise after water. Bad effects of stinting ahorse of his due quantity of water. Green food and roots in their seasons. Autumnal soiling. The carrot and parsnip. Rutabaga or Swedish turnip, and mangel wurtzel, or beet. Un- threshed peas or oats. Rowen or cow hay. Diet of slow draught horses. Barley substituted for oats, as horse corn, in Norfolk. Bad hay and fodder profitless and injurious, p. 108�114. SECTION XIX. p. 114. The Straw yard. Great benefit of a winter's run to a horse injured by labour. Necessary cautions in the case. Parks to be pre- ferred. The author's plan for turning horses off, winter or sum- mer, also for grass and straw stacks, alternate layers. Horse stealing, ' has increased, is increasing, and ought to be dimin- ished,'�various recommendations, p. 114�119. SECTION XX. p. 119. Exercise for saddle and coach horses. The most proper kind for those engaged in constant labour. Condition, its meaning and means. Modes of exercise adapted to various occasions. The improper exercise in Loudon used with crippled post hacks and coachers. Treatment of a horse by a disciplinarian, p. 119� 123. SECTION XXI. p. 123. Purchase. The hackney, resorts for buying and sale. Difficulty of obtaining a good and sound nag. Inexperienced persons should not purchase for themselves. Buying of a friend. Cause of the



			CONTENTS. X1I1

		SECTION XXVII. p. 174. Quotations from the ' History of the Horse.' Military menage. Use of the petit, or inferior manage. Barbarous practice of the old school. ' Adams on Horsemanship'�and Beringer. The anthor's opinion of riding the ' Great Horse.' Opinion of the late Charles Hughes of the Circus. Of the author on the genera! use of riding schools, p. 174�180. SECTION XXVIII. p. 181. Female Equitation. Present fashion of the lady's seat on horseback. When first introduced. Anecdote of two Suffolk ladies. Male seat most secure for ladies who venture into the field. Lady Craven. Lady Hester Stanhope. Cantering the most dangerous pace. Lady Elizabeth Belgrave. To put a Lady on horseback. Lady scholars to ride on either side the horse. Ladies' riding shoes. The lady to have sufficient hold on the bridle in case of accident. Contrary practice of an ex- cellent horseman. Some ladies very expert in improving the walk of their pad. The dismount�with the assistance of one person only to hold the horse. A lofty nag and a strained ankle. The gentleman's side, attending a lady. The woman's bridle, double reined, bridoon, and moderate curb. The gallant author craves pardon of two young ladies, p. 181�186. SECTION XXIX. p. J 87. The Road. Various tastes in journey riding. The author of the impatient class. Great powers of our best English hacks. Al- ternate trotting and cantering. Distance for a single day or two�for long journeys. Variety of qualifications in hacks. Condition for English riding�all in all. Feeding according to work. The patient horseman carries condition in his pocket. Feeding and management on the road. Start at a very moderate pace and finish the last three miles as leisurely. Every eight or ten miles, a few go-downs of water; and in fast travelling over hard roads, in hot weather, ride the horse momen- tarily, over his pasterns, through any water that may be acces- sible. Danger, be the weather hot or cold, of keeping a horse in a state of perspiration standing, any length of time, in water. Up and down hill. Flinty and chalky hills of Surrey and Kent. Attention due to the known quiet hack, not setting off readilv, or making a stop on the road. A knowing practice of your quidding country jockeys. Arrival at the inn. Proper treat- ment of the horse. As to his appetite. Inspection of the lining of the saddle and the horse's back. In summer the horse best dried abroad, but in the shade. The dog-day fever. Smolensko. Master, or groom to attend every feeding, and prevent stopping the feet. Convenience in a groom being able to fix a shoe or drive a nail, p. 187�193.



		CONTENTS.
	XIV	CONTENTS.

SECTION XXX. p. 193. Driving. The author's late letter on the subject to the Sporting Magazine. Every one for himself and God for us all�the devil take the hindmost. Associations recommended. The merit of certain coach proprietors and quality dragsmeu. A legislative call for the general rate of twelve miles per hour. Coach racing on the roads. Accidents. Furious driving through the crowded streets of the metropolis. The author's hair-breadth escape. His funereal paragraph on speculation. Rapid whirl round cor- ners of our swell gig-drivers. Eight to ten miles per hour suffi- cient speed for our stage coaches. Horses changed and har- nessed, light or dark, in a certain number of seconds! Mortality among coach horses in the hot season. As to turning off worked coachers for improvement. Driving in single harness. The old ' Whip, or Four in Hand Club.' Six in hand. Bob Allen. Tommy Onslow, his eloge. The driver of a buggy (solus) yet ever to be found on his own side, and why. Trotting the pace for a single or pair of horses, p. 193�205. SECTION XXXI. p. 205. Driving continued. The author's lowly pretensions. The high- est and best existing authority�Nimrod, of the Sporting Magazine. Selections from thence. Never turn a loaded coach short, even at a slow pace. As to the trot and canter in harness. Various qualities in coach horses, p. 205�210. SECTION XXXII. p. 210. Management of high blowers. Use of the bearing rein. Tem- per in horses to be regarded. A horse fancying his place should have it. Affectionate partners should not be parted. Tender and hard mouthed horses, expedients to hold the latter. Re- marks on these by the author, with a remedy. Kickers. The hip-strap. Speaking to coach horses, long since out of print, but useful. Anecdote of a mail coachman, who ought to have been taught common sense under the most effective discipline at the halbei t. Night work. Lamp light treacherous. Golden Rules of Nimrod for a night coachman. Anecdote of two horses which have stood the coach work more than ten years. Abram Straglcr, of the old Colchester, successor of Abram Met- calf, who commenced driving about the year 1740. Good flesh upon a coach horse the thing. Periodical purges beneficial to all kinds of horses, kept at hard meat. Rate of work in fast and slow coaches. Broken legs. The megrim and the lick. Legs and loins broken in the late insane attempts at increase of speed. Megrim, or swooning in the collar. The lick. Nimrod's excel- lent correspondent Mr. Buxton. Various useful rules, p. 210 �219.



		CONTENTS. XV SECTION XXXIII. p. 219. " Je-whoo it," and " Ya-op," defunct. Politeness of onr present gentlemen of the road. Mr. Buxton's counsel, that horses should have some notice, a click or a whistle. Hallooing! to a kicker. Whipping on the ears, its use and its danger. The author's agreement with Nimrod as to coach horses, and the preference due to trotting in harness; and on the danger of putting a young horse, untrained (the common practice), into a coach laden with passengers. Wages of coachmen. Mr. Mason. The coachman's fee. A coachman ought not to drive more than seventy miles a day, and that at two starts. An old Norwich coachman living in Whitechapel. A young postilion killed by excess of service in the old Ipswich. Road Slang�of the pugilistic ring, and of the respectable profession of the abstractors. The slang or flash of other classes, p. 219�223. SECTION XXXIV. p. 224. The Field. The fox, hare, and deer, chief beasts of venery in this Country. Nature of the chace. Fox hunting the most popular. The general instinctive hunting principle a source of great barbarity. Erroneous speculation on the probable decline of field sports and of the turf. The vile passion for baiting animals. Deer hunting contemptuously styled calf hunting. The opinion of an old foxhunter. The author's opinion. Com- parison in respect to income required for keeping a pack of hounds, between former and present days. Subscription packs. Leicestershire the national head quarters of the fox hunt. Necessity of change in all things, the due and probable result, improvement. Ancient and modern morning hour for reaching covert. The old English hunter. Foreign and thorough bred horses always in use as hunters, in this country. General change to the more speedy, in both horses and hounds, commenced up- wards of three score years since. The old Southern hound. Early objections to this revolution. The origin and breed of ^mi>st of our sporting dogs attempted to be traced in the ' Sports- Man's Repository.' Colonel Thornton and Hugo Meynell. Old �^xUonnd match over the B. C. Newmarket. Colonel Thornton's *I^erkin. Cross of the greyhound and pointer on the old southern hound. The modern hunter should be, at least, three parts bred _; _seven _eigi_iuis preferable to full blood. Qualifications of j. ^C0Inplete English hunter. Reference to Messrs. Tattersall. importance of being carried pleasantly* in the field. Some horses enthusiastically attached to the sport. Anecdotes, p. 224�237. SECTION XXXV. p. 237. ru!^-1f^G ^T>° ^H°^UNDS- Few instructions on paper necessary. Sam Chitney s seat. Qneer position of the toes thrust through the stirrups and pointing downwards. Sitting a horse in the jump.



		XVI CONTENTS.

			To make the horse a steady, prompt, and safe fencer. Hold hard!�when the jump probable to reach the other world. The lold wild goose chase and modem steeple hunt. More mettle than wit, and q. s. of cruelty in these heroic feats. Did Nimrod ever ride to a steeple? Welch creeping, p. 237�249. SECTION XXXVI. p. 249. Slang of the Field. Cockney introductions. Examples of various attempts at an overstrained refinement of language. Dr.Ciirshain and his female dog. The Sporting Magazine the text book for slang. History of that popular periodical, at first not received by the Sporting world�with most difficulty by the field. Advent and success of the celebrated Nimrod. Controversy on sum- mering the hunter. Early examples of this controversy. The summer stabling practice first introduced by continental mare- chales and grooms. Quotation from Michaell Baret�from Beck- ford�from a former book of the author. Reference to the Lords Derby and Petre�Mr. Farquharson and Mr. Maberly. A famous run of Mr. Farquharson's hounds. True spring and summer ma- nagement of the hunter. The rationale as to hard meat. General and most prevalent opinion on summering. Accidents at grass, how avoided. Home, or near pasture, a great convenience. Letter from the proprietor of a celebrated pack of fox hounds, p. 241�251. SECTION XXXVII. p. 251. Training the hunter. As to sweating. Feeding to be regulated by appetite and digestion. The muzzle, its supposed use in the old school�shoes of advantage. Quotation from Nimrod. Dan- ger of making too free with good flesh, and of feeding beyond the digestive powers of the horse. Strong work and sweating the day before the hunt, a rash and needless anticipation of labour. An unsound hunter a dangerous shift. No parallel to be drawn between the continent, or India, and this country, with respect to summering the hunter. As to the grass proper for hunters. Artificial grasses. Use of carrots in early spring. General stable routine. The hunter not to be denied water, on going out, nor to be too empty. Ill effects of the old discipline of lengthened starvation. Treatment of the hunter after a hard day's work, p. 251�256. SECTION XXXVIII. p. 256. From steeple hunting to riding horses to death in the field. A hero to the nackers. Risk of neck-breaking by way of a lark. Danger of broken ground. Material difference in the case be- tween a horse failing in the field through his own and his rider's enthusiasm, and his being driven to death by the force of whip and spur. The latter a strange spectacle to be coupled with



		xvii
	CONTENTS.


sportive ideas. Melton Mowbray the head quarters of fox hunting. Wonderful spring of Lord Alvanley's hunter, Chester- field. Apologetical address of the author to his sporting readers. Baret quoted on the wild goose chase, p. 256�260. SECTION XXXIX. p. 261. Sport of the Turf, its high antiquity. Chiefly directed, in ancient times, to warlike purposes. Both chariot and horse races. An- cient crossing and jostling. Heats four miles, the course pur- posely rendered irregular with obstructions interspersed, one of which was a frightful scarecrow god. The magnificent racing system of the Eastern Emperors, and their noble principle of compassion towards animals. The author's visit to Shaftoe's Squirrel. Racing in England traceable to the eleventh century. Prices of racers in the fourteenth. Origin of the present system in the reign of James the First, or between that and of Charles the Second. The thorough bred racer. Error of the late Dr. Parry and others. Breeds of the Levant. The Arab and Barb of the Desert, the original courser. Early prejudice against the Arabians, a curious fact not being well known. Dismal of intire foreign blood. Arabian plate at Newmarket. Inferiority of the new blood. Uncertainty in the whole racing system. Foreign stallions of late years, in utter neglect on the turf. A new attempt with three Arabians, p. 261�267. SECTION XL. p. 267. Maximum of the racer's speed. Firetail and Pumpkin. Matchem timed over the Beacon Course. Childers over the Round Course. Immense increase of the business of the Turf. Examples. The race horse the most useful of the species. Vernon's Amelia, her match at carrying weight with the miller's horse. Bullock's cantering hack. Great size of some of our racers. Query as to otir having of late receded some points, in respect to form and goodness, below the former standard. Present racers too lofty and too leggy. Observator, his annual remarks. Sir Charles Bunbtirv's opinion. Dr. Syntax, and Old Damper. Stallions covering whilst in training�Hobgoblin, Babram, Dorimant. A revival ot that custom recommended. False starts. A remedy. Race course police. Exemplary at Epsom and Ascot. His R. H. the Duke of Sussex. Posts on race courses. Death of ' Little Wicked,' a favourite lad of Lord Ossory. Great colt stakes, 1777, won by the jockey's head piece. Racing mania upon the Continent. Fiance yet in the back ground. The Doncaster St. Ledger. New stand at Epsom. Exertions of Mr. Maberlv. Short races most prevalent. Racing of Cock- tails and Hunters. Lord March's Rocket gelding, jockied of old by Dick Goodison. 'Slow good ones,' goodseconds and



			ERRATA.

		Page 66, line 7�to middle, add age. ------ 68, line 14�for predicted, read predicated. ------114, add Section XIX. ------188, line 6�for alteration,�alternation. ------285, near bottom, Eclipse foaled 1764.



			THE HORSE.

		SECTION I. O f all quadrupeds subdued and domesticated by the hand of man, the horse stands preeminent, as the most intelligent and generous, and of the most vari- ous and indispensable use. He is susceptible of any lesson inculcating the duties required of him; he is sensible of kind and fair treatment, and will make a grateful return; he is sociable and playful. The horse, the speediest of all domesticated animals, perhaps of all animals, imparts that speed to us, by bearing us upon his back in his full career, and giving us a celerity and extent of locomotion to which ^we could not possibly attain independent of his aid. Harnessed to the carriage, we experience from him ^s,milar services, in which he ministers, in the highest degree, to our ease and comfort. He is our great and indispensable ally in war. His share in the culture °f the earth, that first of all human concerns, the Provision of sustenance for man and beast, is of vital importance; and his services in all human transactions branch into an innumerable variety. He both pro- B



			2 THE HORSE.

		motes our highest degree of luxury, and painfully toils through the lowest and severest drudgery. In fine, after a life of ceaseless and laborious exertion, his carcass is sold for the support of other animals, and his hide is in constant request for various im- portant branches of manufacture. Surely this noble quadruped, in the first place, on the score of his being endowed by nature with feelings similar to our own, and in the next, from a regard to his manifold and indispensable services, richly merits that j ustice, consideration, and compassion from man, which it is most lamentable and disgraceful he does not ex- perience. Indigenous Breed and Improvements of this Country. Little is known of the indigenous breed of horses in these islands, but that they were comparatively small in size, and so to express it, of a wild and unaltered form; yet, on the Invasion by the Romans, Caesar found the British horses regularly harnessed to the war-chariots. It is, however, certain that we began to import at a very early period; and that our improve- ment, not only of the horse, but of all other domestic animals, now beyond possible competition, superior to that of all other countries, has resulted, in the first instance, from constant periodical importations. Thus the best breeding stock of every kind has been selected from all, even the most distant regions ; and the result has been, that the selections here introduced and deni- zened have invariably, in consequence of our skill, industry, the feeding and incrassating nature of our gramineous soil, and the mildness of our climate, far



			THE HORSE. 3'

		exceeded the originals introduced, in size, form, and every valuable property. The domestication and care of animals have immemorially, been a prime and fa- vourite object of pursuit with the people of this country; and improvement had made, particularly in size, considerable progress, as early as the reigns of our Saxon and Norman Kings. Some export of English bred, as well as a constant import of foreign horses, had then taken place. The fine silken-haired and delicate courser of the South East, and the jennet of Spain were subsequently introduced; the war-horse from Germany, the heavy draught-horse from Bel- gium and the Low Countries:�such is the foundation on which the supereminent and incomparable breed of English horses has been reared. In the reigns of Henry the Seventh and Eighth, and on the cessation of the long continued distractions resulting from the contest between the two Roses, government showed a particular anxiety to promote and extend the breeding of horses; but by arbitrary regulations and restrictions, not well calculated to answer the ends proposed. The ancient prohibition to export horses, particularly stallions, was continued; which, the writer has been informed, remains yet upon our statute book; although, from its antiquity and impolicy, it has long since remained a dead letter. In the reigns of Elizabeth and James, a considerable number of writers appeared on the subject of the worse and of farriery, then styled fernery, derived, ui probability, from the Latin, ferrum iron, of which the horse-shoe is made. These writers evince that, however rude the art in their days, it had been



			4 THE HORSE.

		practised with general attention and perseverance in times long antecedent. Blundeville, the earliest now known, and one of the ablest of them, describes the generality of English horses in the reign of Eli- zabeth, as either weak or sturdy jades, adapted only to draught; with however some, indeed very credit- able exceptions. As an example, he states the fact of a horse having travelled for a wager, four score miles within the day. The ambition of improvement had then become so universally diffused, that even the carters were very nice in their choice of horses. The great breeders of the country, according to Blun- deville, had long been accustomed to import the following races for the stud : " The Turk, the Barba- rian, the Sardinian, the Neapolitan, the Jennet of Spain, the Hungarian, the high Almaine (German), the Friezeland, the Flanders, and the Irish Hobby." Nevertheless, in those days, horses could not have been very numerous in England, since the queen experienced the utmost difficulty in mounting two or three thousand cavalry. Throughout these early periods, as in modern times, riding on horseback, and trying the speed of their horses, was peculiarly an English diversion. The country sports of hunting and hawking are of a very ancient date; and our old chronicles furnish us with accounts of the constant diversions in Smoothfield (Smithfield), then an extensive plain, where the citi- zens of London matched and raced their horses, the superior orders joining with the citizens in these sporting competitions. The peculiar English system of breeding the horse, essentially and usefully difTe-



		THE HORSE. 5 rent from that of any other country in Europe, had an early commencement; but, as might well be ex- pected, was confined to the superior, chiefly to the _.- sporting classes. This system has been gradually and progressively improved to the late times; during which we have produced specimens in every variety of the animal, bordering on attainable perfection : such however, it must be acknowledged, have been, even in our latest and most vaunted periods, vara fives, sufficiently scarce; and our numbers of scientific and judicious breeders have at noj^eriod formed the nrajority. The average, however, of English horses, has possessed a fair proportion of the English princi- ple. Hence, their constant demand for foreign studs. This national principle of horse-breeding, consists MB matching the horse and mare, in respect to size, substance, blood, and a certain conventional symmetry, so as to obtain a form in the foal, in which may subsist a union of strength and ability for labour, with the powers of activity, and speedy progression. We pro- ceed on the principle that, generally, and subject to the natural and unavoidable dilemma of exception, 'like produces like.' So said, and so found, that renowned cattle breeder Bajcewell, who modernized the ancient adage, " most commonlie, such sire and _^ damme, such colt." As we imported foreign horses, invariably improv- ^lng upon those models, so we originally imported the art of farriery and veterinary science from the schools of Italy and France, improving upon those likewise. In the early periods above quoted, the farriers of note and the riding-masters in England,



			6 THE HORSE.

		were generally Italian or French. Those, indeed, were sufficiently barbarous and unenlightened; our native artists inconceivably so, when the length of time is considered through which their art had been in universal practice in all its branches. The number of old farrying and veterinary writers was great; in- deed, certain of them of eminent classical attainments, though the names even, of few have reached our days. Dr. Johnson has somewhere remarked on the vast number of writers of that class, who published in the reign of James the First. The subsequent course of improvement seems to have been confined to the saddle-horse, to the racer, hunter, and hack; at least, with respect to symmetry and activity, with some ex- ception in favour of the cart-horse. The improvement of our coach, troop-horses, and chargers, was in idea, and in its actual commencement about sixty years since, when the generality of them were of a gross, heavy, and inactive breed. And the present writer well remembers Sir Robert Rich's heavy plug-tailed dragoon horses, with his formidable black drummers; and also the stage-coach horses of similar descrip- tion, a set of which travelled gallantly, with a jee- who-it! and a crack of the whip, full fifty miles between six a. m., and eight p. m. But he suspects the present Lord Mayor of London (Venables, 1828) in one of his merry stories at the Mansion House, must have made a chronological mistake in the ac- count of his travel from Maidstone, at the above slow rate, so lately as 1780, with the facetious additions of taking leave of friends at the set out. Those laughable incidents belong to a much earlier period;



8
		THE HORSE.


	SECTION II. The equine or Horse genus in this country, is divided and subdivided into a number of species and varieties of quality and nomenclature. For ex- ample, the racer or running horse, the cock- tail RACER, the HUNTER, HACK, HACKNEY ROAD- HORSE or chapman's horse, the cob, the lady's horse or pad, the coach and chariot horse, gig-horse, charger and troop horse, the slow draught or cart and drayhorse. In sporting language, the term horse indicates one uncut, or a stallion. Gelding has ever been a common and familiar term. A horse below thirteen hands (four inches to a hand) in height, is styled a poney; above that height, and below fourteen hands, a gal- loway. Fashion, however, rules the roast in all things, and of late it has become the ton to nick- name galloways, and almost sized horses, ponies, quasi pets ; and I have lately heard Tattersall himself announce from the pulpit, a poney for sale, which bordered very nearly on fourteen hands. The word or term has also been, of late years, curtailed, as I humbly conceive, of its fair orthographical pro- portion. It is now spelled pony, a literal abridg- ment introduced, in all probability, according to my observation, by that celebrated journal the Times, by way of the laudable economy of a single letter in an advertisement. The term entire horse, for horse or stallion, may perhaps be about ten or seven years of age. It has not hitherto had much currency, being deemed a cockneyism by the generality of



			THE HORSE. 11

		riety; for example, the head should be lean, argutum caput, neither long nor short, and set on with some- what of a curve; the thropple loose and open; the neck not reversed (cock-throppled), but rather arched; the loins wide and substantial, more especially should the back be long; the tail not drooping, but nearly °n a level with the spine; the hinder quarters well spread, as a support to the loins, and as a security against the approach to each other of the pasterns in progression, whence results cutting them with the hoofs; the hinder legs should descend straight, late- rally from the hocks, as a preventive to the defect styled sickle-houghed or hammed; at the same time, the curve from the hock should be to the degree, that the feet may be placed sufficiently forward to prop the loins, and that the horse may not be said to leave his legs behind him; the muscles of the thigh and fore arm should be solid and full, though some horses are heavy and overdone by nature in thost parts. The horse, of whatever description, should not be leggy, and of the extremes, short legs are surely preferable. The canon or leg-bone, below the knee, should not be long, but of good substance, and the pasterns and feet of a size to accord with the size of the horse; the hoof dark, feet and frog tough, heel wide and open; the fore feet should stand perfectly level, the toe pointing forward in a right line, else the horse will knock or ' cut in the speed,' however wide his chest; in plain terms, he will either �strike and wound his pasterns, or his legs imme- diately below the knees, or both; the feet standing- even, the horse being equal to his work, will seldom,



		THE HORSE. 13 d�iZ��.�Hi~^norses>the truest and most forceful pullers ever yet known; they were the only breed, collec- tively, that would draw dead pulls, that is to say, would continue repeated pulls, going; down upon their JH^Si^at an immovable object; for example, a tree. * "is, draught horses in general, even the most power- ful and the best, as the writer has witnessed, cannot ^De brought to do, with whatever severity; at the second or third pull, gibbing, as it is called, and ^rnng their heads, as if to point with their eyes, .lp_vvards their failing loins. Such was the rage in former days, among the Suffolk farmers' men, for wagering on this sport of dead pulls, that many valu- able teams of horses were annually strained and ruined thereby. This, in all probability, was the cjrief cause, that so extremely active and valuable a .breed was relinquished. Sixty years since consi- derable progress was making in Suffolk, to cross "leir breed with large Yorkshire horses, still adher- ^lng to the chestnut colour; and between the last twenty and thirty years, only several solitary indi- ^Vlduals of the old breed remained. The new Suffolks have proved a long, heavy, leggy, dull looking breed, yet useful; more resembling in form and size pro- bably the Cleveland bays than any other. The pre- sent Norfolk breed of cart horses bears resemblance m size and activity to the old Suffolk ; but the former are not celebrated for drawing dead pulls. It used to be matter of question with the knowing ones whether drawing with those extraordinary and vain ^repetitions, were a natural qualification, consequent °n the peculiar form of the Suffolk horse, or whether 't were the mere result of training to that habit ?



		14 THE HORSE. To speak of the colours of these animals to the uninitiated, who are ambitious of describing things by their proper technical stable names, here followeth the horseman's and sportsman's phraseology in the case, in which by the by, mirabile dictu, we have yet no novelty or addition. The colours of horses are thus expressed�black, white ; grey, dappled GREY, IRON GREY, FLEA-BITTEN GREY; red, nut- meg, and blue roan ; strawberry ; bald, face whited; pyebald (spotted); dun; chestnut, light and dark; brown, light and dark; bay, light bright, or yellow. Sorrel is an obsolete Suffolk term for deep chestnut. The age of the horse is discoverable on a general view, by the freshness or deadness of his hair, and its intermixture with grey, and by the hollowness and sinking in the orbits of his eyes: with precision, by the marks in his mouth, which continue to rising, namely, coming eight years of age; beyond which period nothing relative can be determined, but on conjecture. The length of his teeth, their edges standing more outward, by which aged horses are apt to bite and wound their lips in mastication; or if short, their foulness and dingy colour, are signs of old age in apparent degrees. Nature has allowed the horse forty teeth, twenty-four grinders, or double teeth, twelve fore teeth, and four tushes, which last standing in the corners of the mouth, are peculiar to the horse, being seldom found with the mare; or if found, scarcely to be distinguished by the finger. The front teeth or gatherers are flat and smooth ; the back jaw teeth or giinders, twelve above, and twelve below, are strong, double, and with sharp



		THE HORSE. 15 edges, until smoothed by old age and use. The tushes are detached from the back teeth; the first, ^or foal's teeth, are tangible in a few months, twelve ^ln number, above and below; they are remarkably white and small, not unlike the human fore teeth; and when mixed in the colt's mouth with those which succeed, size renders them plainly distinguishable. In some, the foal's teeth remain several months after the appearance of the adult or horse's teeth. Gene- rally the four middlemost foal's teeth, two above and two below, are cast at between two and three years °f age, and their successors being complete, the colt °r filly is deemed three years of age. At three years and a half, four additional foal teeth are cast on each side the nippers, gatherers, or middle teeth. The two middle teeth, above and below, full grown, indi- cate the age of four years ; the tushes appearing nearly at the same time, occasionally rather earlier °i' later, they are then small, curved, and their summits encircled by a sharp edge, which becomes blunted in age; the inside of the tusk is somewhat grooved, hollow, and rather flat. The horsedealing fraud of extracting the foal's teeth, in order to cause a pre- mature appearance of the adult, and to pass the horse ^tor a four year old, may be detected by the absence ^ot the tushes, which should appear at that period. ^n the approach to, and at the age of five years, ^when the horse has nearly attained the prime of life, his corner teeth begin to appear; at first, level with the g_Ums _and _fili_e(j _wj_tn fl_esn _m their centre; the ushes also, increased in size, though not yet large, ^are somewhat rough and sharp. The corner teeth



		s THE HORSE. 17 SECTION III.�Breeding. Ihe ceremony of introduction of the horse to the mare is well known, in all its particular tactics, by °^Ur stable, particularly our country people. In the ^stud it is usual, previously, to try young or uncertain mares with an ordinary stallion, styled a teaser, that ^tne superior may not be fatigued, or have his vigour exhausted. Mares known to be quiet and thoroughly ready, are offered to the horses with their legs at bberty, and only held by the head; otherwise they ^are hoppled, or their legs tackled. Such is perhaps universally held a sufficient precaution; but it has Hot always proved so ; and fatal accidents have occa- ^slonally occurred, from headstrong and determined mares plunging violently, and getting their hinder ^iegs at liberty, or throwing themselves down. Stal- "°ns, at different periods, have been killed outright, m this way, from kicks on the testes, or having their ^iegs broken. To couple accidents together, though ^ansmg from different causes, a racing stallion was ^lost, some years since, by being put, with a full -Si°_2^ic}i> to a mare. The violence of the action °aused a rupture of the intestines. Many years past, ^and immediately after a fatal accident which came to "is knowledge, the present writer recommended the security of leathern straps, attached to posts fixed in ^tne ground, in which straps the legs and fetlocks of the mare mig-ht be confined all fours; a railing to be Placed on each side, as with the leaping-bar. To nose who slight a precaution of this kind, the author egs leave to propose a question:�how would they



		THE HORSE. 19 profitable precaution, in respect to the mare; more Specially in the case of twins, from the weight of which the mare will often appear dull and sleepy, �- with a temporary loss of appetite. A cart mare of Wine, thoughtlessly retained too late in work, cast remarkably fine and large twin colt foals. In the case of twins, one of them (the strongest) may be easily brought up by hand, on cow's milk; in which mode, the old racers, Cade, Milksop, and others ^smce, were nurtured, having lost their dams. Admi- nistering drugs to the mare which has stolen a leap, m order to procure abortion, is an act of cruelty, and often permanently injurious to her constitution ; the attempt to effect it by manual operation, detestable. The term of gestation with the mare is variable ; from eleven months and odd days, to three hundred and sixty-three days, which latter number, I suppose, ^may be deemed the utmost. She is supposed to carry her first foal longer than the succeeding, and to go longer with a colt than with a filly. She brings � *orth in a standing position; seldom in the day time, _" by night, or early in the morning. The mare is perhaps liable to as little labour or error in parturition as any female whatever. In case of an exception, "mely recourse should be had to some one skilful in ^ne practice of animal obstetrics. The approach of par- turition is indicated a few days previous, by the swell- ^,ng °f the udder, the appearance of milk, the swollen state of the matrix, and the thrusting out of the tail. At this period, the mare should be watched night and ^daY, lest by her choosing an improper place in which to bring forth j her produce may be lost; a risk which



		THE HORSE. 21 Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland, the Northern and Midland Counties, have been imme- ^morially our chief breeding districts; the former for saddle and coach cattle, the latter for heavy draught and troop horses. Racers are bred in both North ^and South; and, generally, horse-breeding in certain degrees enters into the rural system of all counties. he breed of foresters,* a small, but useful species of the galloway and poney size, is greatly decreased, or Nearly extinct. The culture of waste lands, and the ^lrumensely increased demand for coach and sized nags, ¹ has been the cause. The New Forest, half a century ?i\|ice, used to turn out, annually, a great number of the former description, well bred and extremely use- ^tul; and upon Tiptree Heath, in Essex, some good ^tQugh hacks were bred, many of them out of Norway ^mares. SECTION IV.�The Stud. ¹⁰ establish this upon a considerable scale, and in the first style of adaptation and convenience of every *^lnd, the country chosen should be dry, hilly, and irreg_ui_ar; ^_ne _sojj calcareous, with sweet herbage, and good water in abundance. A sufficient shelter timber is advantageous. The breeding and rearing ° ^racers, hunters, and hacks, are here contemplated. ^nere are, perhaps, many parts in South Wales, in Which these purposes would be well answered. A umber of well and high fenced paddocks and inclo- ses, commensurate with the extent of the stud, ¹ » m course, be understood; as also of sheds in ^ose ^closures, for sheltering the stock in winter



		THE HORSE. 23 United States of North America, and the breed more similar to the English, in form and activity, though perhaps generally smaller, and many of their hacks ^are amblers, or running trotters. Returning to the English stud, and describing it ^as intended to be complete at all points, the necessity flight be presumed of an adjoining farm, sufficient in ^extent to produce the requisite quantities of com, ^sWaw, hay, artificial grasses, and roots. At any rate, ^tue stud should be joined by land enough, on which ^nilght be cultivated the needful quantities of lucerne ⁰¹' soiling; and, should the soil be sufficiently deep, ° carrots; an indispensable article in this concern, ^or autumnal and early spring use. Our chief breed- ^lng establishments of first sized heavy dray and cart worses, chiefly for the metropolitan market, are found \|ⁿ rich and deep grassy soils; since the same full bite ^ls required for these, to rear them up to their utmost ^Slze and bulk, as is indispensable for the same pur- pose, i_n the large varieties of horned cattle and sheep. °e phraseology of the stud, as regards the ^U!1rnals, runs thus�stallion, sire, beood-'mare, ^AMj FOAL, COLT, FILLY, FULL BROTHER, BRO- ^1IEr in blood. This last term indicates an identity Wood on both sides, but not of individual sire and ^am- The vounar stock retain the names of colt or fill ^mlY> until nearly approaching their fifth year, ^len ^ey assume the appellation of horse, gelding, mare. The novel dandy term, entire horse, has en noted; _we have lately observed in print the ^mjeniale brought into stabular use.



	24
		THE HOUSE.


The chief preliminary considerations to breeding are�the species required, choice of stallion and mare, and the season of putting them together. De Grey, an old English writer, insisted on the preference due to autumn, for reason scarcely worth recapitulation at this period, unless from necessity with a favourite mare. The spring is always chosen, and it matters not how early, with those breeders who can depend on early pasturage. The radical error in our general breeding system is, that the form and size of the stallion alone is particularly attended to, whilst the form and aptitude of the mare is little considered. Hence probably, the cause of our notorious and con- stant scarcity of thorough shaped horses. In order to produce such, it would seem that there is a neces- sity for a just symmetry and proportion in both horse and mare; at least, as far as regards the most important points, which have been already discussed. At any rate, with regard to those, that which is deficient in one should be made up by the other. In breeding hacks, that is to say, road horses, re- course is generally had to racing stallions, to such as have a show of blood, or trotters, as in Norfolk. These generally cover at one to five guineas. The opposite modes, with regard to expense in breed- ing horses, have been noted. In the racing studs, and perhaps in all, where high form and size, for sale, are the objects, the brood mares and foals are allowed corn. In the common breeding system, the purpose being to obtain stock at the least possible cost, the mares and foals shift through spring and summer, wherever they can find a bite of grass; and



		THE HORSE. 25 during winter, in the straw-yard, upon that provender, with the addition perhaps of a portion of ordinary hay. Carrots would be a vast help to breeders of this des- cription, and the only person, who, it may be sup- posed, w^rould profit by such economy, are farmers not solicitous about figure in their teams. The best market for brood mares, whether in regard to price or quality, will be found in the London Re- positories, during the months of September and Oc- tober. All descriptions, one perhaps excepted, may then and there be met with, and many of good age, P'ematurely worked down, in that real hell of horses, °^ur flying stage work. Such mares, turned off for the winter, well kept with hay and carrots, and well sheltered in dry straw-yards and sheds abroad, their �constitutions being sound, will be in the best possible state for breeding in the spring. The exception above refers to draught horses of the first" size and class, mares of which are seldom seen in London, but must be sought in the Midland Counties and Lin- colnshire. *o commence with the particular incidents of the ^reeding system,�should the mare have foaled suc- -cssfully abroad, in a well sheltered pasture, her milk PPearing copious and fluent, and the weather fayour- ^e' ^she may be suffered to remain, requiring nothing ^ner than daily inspection and her allowance of ^corn, if such should be bestowed. On the other hand, should her milk be obstructed and fail, either rom cold caught or other cause, she should be im- mediately taken _up to the house, and enticed to lie iown upon _a l_arge _and _deep littered bed of fresh c



			26 THE HORSE.

		straw, and every method taken to comfort her, and to encourage the secretion of milk. To promote this end, as much warm mild ale should be allowed, as she will drink; or if she refuse it, she may be drench- ed with a couple of quarts, to be repeated as may ap- pear necessary; her food being the finest and most fragrant hay, sweet grains, with mashes of corn and pollard. In cases of chill and great weakness, the old well known article, cordial ball, may be given in warm ale. Should, however, the case be inflamma- tory, from previous high condition and fullness of blood, cordial ball and all stimulants should be strictly avoided, and the regimen confined to warm water and gruel in as copious quantities as can be administered. Should further measures of similar tendency be in- dicated, a mild solution of Glauber's or Epsom Salts, (10 or 12 oz. in a pail of warm water,) may be given, which she may be induced to drink by being kept short of water. A moderate quantity of blood may be drawn, should the symptoms plainly demand it, not otherwise. Daily walking exercise abroad, the mare being clothed if necessary, should succeed, until she be sufficiently recovered to be returned to her pasture. During the inability of the mare to give suck, the foal must be sustained on cow's milk. This alien milk will generally disorder and gripe the foal, for which, the best remedy is two or three tea spoon- fuls of rhubarb in powder, with an equal quantity of magnesia, in warm gruel. This medicine should be given to the foals of labouring mares, which are often griped by sucking pent milk. The disorder arising from wet and cold, a table spoonful each, of the best



		THE HORSE. 27 brandy and syrup of white poppies, may be given several times. Mares that come early, and in bad Weather, should invariably be brought to the house to foal. ■t oals run abroad with their dams until autumn; if Weakly, their weaning should be deferred as late as Possible. It has been before observed that, in the racing studs, and those where first-rate stock is the °bject, the foals are corn-fed, from their earliest in- clination to it. It should have been observed that geldings are not to be admitted among the brood ^mai'es, as by leaping them, or harassing them about, abortion may be occasioned. Foals should be handled at the earliest period, and as soon as possible accus- tomed to be led with the halter. Castration is usually performed at two years old; but with the thin ^a»d low crested, should be deferred until the latest convenient period. Spading of mares has been long since out of practice. The present writer, many years ^a§°> successfully revived the ancient practice of °^ck'Ng the sucking foal at a month old, an opera- !on which may then be performed with a sharp knife, ^s ^attended with trifling pain, and no risk; whereas, ^oth the pain and the danger of the operation on uults, are considerable. The colts and fillies, after ^lng Weaned, and the mares becoming dry, may ' gam associate through the winter, and until- the ap- proaching parturition of the mares demand another reparation: the next is that necessary one of the colts from the filli_es.